300. True Spirituality - Becoming A Romans 12 Christian // Special Speaker - Chip Ingram

Welcome to the City Church Podcast, we hope that you will be abundantly blessed by this message. If you would like to find out more about the city, please log on to our website www.thecity.sg. First let me say it has been a joy to be in Singapore. My close friend Randy Tio and his whole family have hosted and I've gotten to know your pastor Andre and then his wife yesterday and Daniel and Joy. Thank you all very, very much. I came through as doing some ministry in China and I was on my way home and this has been the highlight of my trip. I have four grown children and twelve grandchildren, busy grandma. That's what she's doing right now with many of. So my oldest granddaughter is 16 and my youngest grandson is one and we have many in between. I'm passing out some notes and if you'll fold them in half it's like a little booklet. I want to thank the worship team. I've been traveling a lot lately and this morning I've been very tired and I had back surgery and usually it's okay but it acts up sometimes and it really acted up and thanks to Randy and his family they put patches on me and I was on a foam roller this morning and took some Advil but your worship team thank you. I really spoke to my heart today. I came tired and claiming his promise that his grace is sufficient for me and that power is perfected in weakness and as we sang I just over and over said Lord I want to exalt I want to rejoice in my weakness that your power might be manifested and I don't I need to can I get who all the songs are by before I leave because two of the songs I've never heard but the one about surrender and when we sang that it will mark me in this moment I'm like you all I have dreams and I've been praying about things and you know how sometimes in the middle of your journey maybe in the middle of a song the Spirit of God just and you know I came today thinking I was going to minister to you and in the middle of that song God spoke to me in a powerful way I couldn't stop crying so thank you thank you you know no matter how old we get no matter how much we've done when God the line was if he's calling you into deeper things and to greater purpose do you remember that line in the song when we sang that it was like God said that's you here we go and and both the joy and the fear you know how those come together like this sounds really wonderful but I wonder what it means and and then the reassurance of his great goodness so what a joy almighty Heavenly Father Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Holy Spirit Comforter God we exalt you this morning Lord we thank you that we can be in reverent awe but we need not fear that you are a good God that the plans you have for us are good Lord that your love for us is infinite Lord all through scripture it says you are slow to anger abundant in loving kindness compassionate Lord to think that as we sit here and we all know our issues to think that you feel them with us that you're not down on us that you want to help us that you're actually patient and long suffering like a parent is with a little toddler learning to walk will you please speak Lord would you fill me with your love with your spirit and with your wisdom and would you in this time give each of us in this room a deeper and real knowledge of who you really are what your purpose is for us and then would you deposit a new measure of faith that we could believe what we think in our head and in our mind would you transfer that into our heart as convictions would you make this group strong and bold in Christ that Singapore would be different that the world would be different and we just confess we can't do that but we also acknowledge you can't we can do all things through Christ who is our strength and so we expect you Lord not hope we expect that you're going to speak because you promised you would in Jesus name Amen on the front of your notes it says God has a dream for your life and every parent has a has a dream and lots of young people here which is really wonderful and I'm guessing you're not parents yet which is a good thing but there's a number of parents because I saw many many many kids and in quiet moments every parent has a dream for your children and some of them of course I mean bigger than their vocation or what they'll grow up to be or where they will work or what they might accomplish and of course there's maybe some dreams if you're a musician or an athlete or an artist or in business some small dreams about maybe they will follow in your footsteps but the big dreams in parents hearts are what kind of person your son or daughter will become you see when you've lived as long as I have you'll learn that sometimes parents get so concerned about their kids education and what school they go to and how much they can accomplish and then what they realize is that sometimes in all that pressure what happens is their child's heart is turned away from the father because they feel the pressure or from the mother and it's a painful thing to have close friends who have worked so hard to help their children be successful and then then not have any relationship with their children you see that the deepest dreams in a parent's heart regardless of what profession is that their children would grow up and be godly that they would have a deep loving relationship that you would raise a child that would be a person of integrity a person that would be selfless and not narcissistic that your son or your daughter would be the kind of person that other people would say they've been such an encouragement team they're so kind they're so loving they they're so genuine and they're so authentic and you know whether they had a low-paying job or a high-paying job whether they became very famous or no one ever knew their name the greatest joy a parent will ever have is when they grow up if they're the kind of person that reflects the person of Jesus I have four children and we've had many ups and downs my greatest joy today is that I'm close friends with all my adult children that for reasons now they've made mistakes and we've made many mistakes but I want you to know that are you ready for this the greatest joys and the greatest pains you will probably ever have in your life are with your children your children when they hurt or make decisions that break your heart there's few things that can hurt you deeply and when your children make some decisions and there's a connection with them there's few things that bring greater joy and and sometimes I think we have this idea we say oh God is our Father and we pray that prayer that Jesus taught us our Father who is in heaven but so often I hear people and myself we we start our Father who are in heaven how will be the name and we kind of forget what does it really mean that God is our Father I would like I would suggest that God has a dream for you and and and sometimes I know you that know that in your head but I want you to feel the emotion I want you to get the sense it's from a picture from my life my wife and I both came from difficult family backgrounds her father was an alcoholic my father was an alcoholic we had a lot of struggles and and then the Lord she became pregnant with our first son and I still remember we were at a dinner meeting and she looked at me and said it's time I said oh good no it's time and she was very very big and we went to the hospital and we went through 26 hours of labor there were There was a complication and the umbilical cord was around the little baby's neck. And so they put a monitor on the baby and I will never forget, I sat here and she was here and we would talk and the monitor, a baby's heart beat is very fast and then a contraction would occur and we would hear and then the nurses would run in and they would get ready to take her to surgery and that happened for 26 hours. And so we did what any parent would do. It was like, "Oh Lord, oh Jesus, please, please save my son and keep my wife safe." And so Lord, He's yours, we, children are a gift from God, we give Him back to you. But it was such a long journey and two or three times the doctor rushed in and they would start to take her and beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And we were exhausted and we gave our son back to the Lord probably three or four times. But during that time I had a lot of time to think because I thought my son may not live. I thought of all the things in the years of the dreams that I would have and though my father was an alcoholic, he was a very functioning alcoholic and I knew he loved me a lot. He just had a hard time to show it but one of his ways, he was a great athlete and he taught me how to play baseball and basketball and my early memories of joy were doing things with my father athletically and I thought, "This little boy and I will do that." And then I thought of the dreams and what God might do and all those dreams were like on the edge and then they would be crushed, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Here's what I want you to get, that little baby was born and he was alive and he came out okay and then my wife was exhausted and they laid that baby on her chest and she just about passed out and then they cleaned him all up and then they had a little room you know with the little curtains like in the you know and it was a linoleum floor and they put my son in my arms and I looked down at him and I thought this is a miracle. This is part of me and part of my wife Teresa and I was I'm sure I was very tired but I was so overcome with emotions perhaps the dreams that I have for my child we can have and I just was overwhelmed and I remember falling to my knees just tears streaming down my face thanking God for this little boy and I want you to feel that emotion because sometimes when you think of your Heavenly Father you think of him as distant out there all maybe who help you someday if I as a father feel that way about my baby I want you to know that's how your Heavenly Father feels about you with that depth of emotion that what we feel for our children your Heavenly Father feels for you and he has a dream for your life and his dream for your life is more important than your vocation his dream for your life is more important than you know how much money you make or how many people know you his dream is more important than anything his dream is the kind of person that you would become. You'll notice in your notes in fact it says our Heavenly Father has a dream for everyone of his children God's dream is to make you like his son in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus was talking in the sermon on the mount and he said that we should be perfect the word is in Greek is teleus we get the English word telescope or in philosophy there's the teleological argument the word means something that has a design and a design that has a fulfillment and he says that we should be perfect or mature even as our Heavenly Father is perfect in Romans chapter 8 he tells us when you know all things work together for the good you for the verse right for those who love God or call to coin to his purpose we always say verse 28 but why verse 29 is because he's going to conform us to the image of his son he's working things together not always so our life will be easy but he works every single thing difficulty betrayal paying whatever happens in your life to help you become more and more like his son that's God's agenda God's dream is to make us progressively like the Lord but I have a confession and a concern is that there is a crisis in Christianity it certainly is in America but I've had the privilege of traveling many countries around the world and the research says that in the great majority of people who I come to know Jesus I've prayed to receive him I've asked him for forgiveness his spirit has entered my life and then in terms of the lifestyle that the great majority of people who have put their faith in Christ don't have a lot of family resemblance in other words they've received forgiveness but their life their love their morality and their values don't reflect Jesus very much. In America the crisis is so bad and the gallop and barnacles polls maybe only two out of ten people who say Jesus is my savior live in a way that's any different from those who are unbelievers so real crisis I grew up in a social church that didn't believe the Bible and the values of the people were I mean not at all like the Bible and I rejected Jesus and I rejected Christianity because I thought if this is people who call themselves Christians they lie like I do they steal like I do they lust like I do there's no difference in them why would I want their Jesus and that's happening around the world one of the most powerful things that ever happens in a church or in a life is when your life is progressively becoming more like Christ it attracts people it wasn't until I played basketball in college and I came to Christ at a camp where there was college professional athletes and I saw people love one another and I heard the Bible taught and I realized they had something that I didn't have that was real that's what attracted me the early church it says they lived such radical lives like you're doing cleaning up the why helping the elderly the early church would help little babies would be born and if it was a little girl they would take them to the trash heap because they didn't want a girl and the father had the right just I don't want it and Christians would be there that the lepers know would be rejected and the early Christians would bring them in they did radical things and people said why do you do this and they would tell them because this is how Jesus cares it was the difference in their life that people said will you explain to us the hope that you have and first Peter said they had a living hope and they had an inheritance and the anchor of their soul was that Jesus is coming back he's prepared a place for them and we're going to usher in the kingdom of God that we're going to demonstrate little Jesus is now in every aspect of life he would teach that all of us are in full-time ministry and you can you can go undercover as a software developer you can go undercover as an insurance agent you can go undercover working for the government but you are an ambassador you are the living Christ inside of you and here's the question what does that look like notice in your notes God's dream for every child of his is to become a disciple the word just means a follower a Romans 12 Christian and if you will open your notes we're going to go on the first part of a journey and if this journey interests you we have some ways that you can continue on it by yourself here's the question what does an authentic disciple of Jesus look like how I mean you should you should ask yourself I would ask myself am I we saying I'm surrendered we sang Lord use my life for your glory so if someone asks you what is a disciple how do you measure a disciple how would you know if you are following Jesus wholeheartedly is it a feeling lots of people have feelings is it just because you read the Bible is it because you pray some prayers is it because that you're very conscientious and you gave at least 10% when the offering bag came by is it because you have your morality a little bit better than others but those are some symptoms and important things but can anyone think anyone think of anyone in the Bible that read the Bible that prayed multiple times a day that gave their money that Jesus was not very happy with They were called the Pharisees. They were very religious people, but their hearts were far from God. So we can't measure our spiritual maturity by our activities. Activities are a means, but our spiritual maturity has to be measured by something far more important, and it's our relationships. See Jesus' command was love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Well, that sounds wonderful, but what does that look like? What does it look like in daily life? And I'm going to suggest that when you open your notes, a Romans 12 Christian is a grace-based relational profile of an authentic follower of Christ. That it's measurable, that it's practical, and that it's relational. In fact, pull your pen out, if you will, and I want you, I'm going to notice that there's five relationships in this passage. And if you can come up with another relationship you have in the world, let me know. I've asked many groups this, and so far, these are the only five relationships you'll ever have in your life. You'll notice you have a relationship with God, put a circle around God. You have a relationship with the world. This isn't the physical world. This is the world system that is energized by Satan, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The goal of the world system is to seduce you and your soul away from your love for Jesus. Third, you have a relationship with yourself, circle the word self, right? This morning you were looking in the mirror, you were putting on your makeup, you were shaving, you were driving your car, and all kind of thoughts went through your mind. Thoughts about yourself. How am I doing? How do I look? What's going to happen? What about this? What about that? We talk to ourselves all day long. Fourth, you have a relationship with believers, circle the word believers. There's people that the spirit of God lives in them and lives in you, and you have this connection. And then finally you have a relationship with unbelievers. And here I mean, predominantly ones that are opposed to the gospel and opposed to what you stand for. So circle unbelievers. And here's all I want to say. This passage is going to describe what an authentic disciple of Jesus actually looks like, so that you can know, oh, this is the progressive pattern of spiritual maturity. There's five relationships and there's five biblical responses. And what I want to suggest, as I walk through in a minute, that these five relationships and these five responses will answer the five biggest questions that every person is asking deep in your heart for the rest of your life. Are you ready? What about our relationship with God? It says, therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of service. Put it underline the word, therefore, what's it mean? Therefore what's it referring back to? 11 chapters, right? The first three chapters of Romans, you can even look on the back of your notes, I give you a brief outline, is about the problem of mankind. The problem of all mankind is sin. We missed the mark, we're not perfect. Chapters four and five are God's solution, is salvation. Christ died in our place to pay for our sin and rose from the dead. Chapter six through eight is about big word, sanctification. It's, how does God change us? His spirit comes to live in us. We've died with him, chapter six. We have this battle, the flesh in the spirit, and then chapter eight, what? There's no condemnation. The only one that can live the Christian life is Jesus, and he dwells in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Chapters nine through eleven is a parenthesis, because as Paul was writing this to a Jewish and Gentile group in Rome, some of the Jews would say, you're saying Jesus, this new Messiah is making all these promises, what about the promises to Abraham? What about the promises to the land and the throne? So chapters nine through eleven are just a little parenthesis, so that this is what God will fulfill all of his promises to the nation of Israel. But then he's going to say, because of their disobedience, if you don't mind a basketball metaphor, they've been taken out of the game, and they've been put on the bench, and there's a substitute, and the substitute is the church. The living church will now be the agent of God's blessing, and later God will take them off the bench, and he will fulfill all his commitments to them. And then chapter 12, here's what he says, "Therefore, in light of the longest explanation of God's grace and the gospel, here's what it says, offer your body as a living sacrifice." The word "offer" here grammatically is an attense of the verb that means at a certain point, at a certain time. It's punctilier. In other words, this is not something you slide into. When you get married, you don't just sort of get married, right? There's a certain day, and a certain time, you look to another person, you say, "No one else is for me, but you, I do." That's what this is. Normal Christianity. When God looks down from heaven and says, "What is a mature follower of Jesus?" He says, "Their first relationship with me." This is not how you get saved, right? What do you think did that happen? Chapter 4 and 5. He's explaining how do you say thank you to God? This isn't how to earn His favor. This isn't doing anything to earn. This is saying, "In light of all that you have done for me, Lord, what do you want?" And he would say, "This is what I want." On a certain day, at a certain time, exactly what we're saying, "I want you to bow your knee, bow your heart and say to the Lord, all that I am and all that I have is yours." My life, my future, my money, my family, my relationships, all that I am, all that I will ever have. I'm offering it to you on this day. It's like getting married. It's called the Lordship of Christ. See, we have many people who have taken Jesus up on His offer, "Oh, be my Savior." And then they live their own wife, and how they live often embarrasses the gospel. And He says, "So this is the first step. This isn't for pastors or missionaries. This is normal Christianity. This is just, and we're a little afraid to do it, because we don't believe that God is good." Now, I want you to write in your notes this answers a very important question. Write the question, how do you give God what He wants the most? Every religion is trying to appease their God. Some offer their children. I've been in places in the world where they're afraid of their ancestors and they leave food or burn incense. Every religious system is asking the question to this God, "What do you want?" And we should ask that, "All mighty, triune God, creator of the universe, what do you really want from me? Do you want my religious activity? Is it just about, do you want my money?" And what's the answer? I want you, all of you. I want your heart. And it's an offering that starts at a point in time, but then what's it say? It's a living and holy sacrifice. And look at the last line. If you ever wanted to know what does God really want, it says this is your spiritual service of worship. That word's spiritual. If some of you have different translations, some will say reasonable or logical. The word is logizomai. You can hear the English word logic. In other words, track with me. If there's an all-knowing God who is good, who is your father, and he was willing to die for you, and he wants the very best for you, and he says, "This is how you can worship me so you get the very best to fulfill my plan for you and for me. Give all of yourself to me, isn't that logical?" I mean, if someone gave you a billion dollars, and put it in your bank account, and then said to you, "Now, here's what I would like you to do, because I want to help you fulfill the best plan for your life." You know, if they give you a billion dollars, I think you can trust them. But he didn't give you a billion dollars. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How will he not give you freely? He has your best. But it starts with surrender. The second question that we want to ask and answer, and we do, is how do I get the best from God? Right? I don't know about you, but I want the best wife. I want the best life. I want the best children. I want the best career. How Almighty God, after all you've done for me, how do I get the best life? And the answer is verse two. It's your relationship with the world. [BLANK_AUDIO] separate from the world's values, separate from the world's values, not separate from the world, we don't go hide out in a mountain and just become holy people. It's separate from the world's values. Notice the command. It says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed or metamorphicized as from the inside out by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what the will of God is." In other words, so you can experience how do you get the best? His good, pleasing, and perfect will. And so what he says is, "On a certain day, at a certain time, after you're already a follower of Christ, you say to the Lord, 'I'm all in.'" I was in Texas for many years and before I was a Christian, I had a gambling problem. But now and then I like to watch a little gambling, just on TV. Texas hold him. Does anyone know what Texas hold him is? Right? Thank you. It's a card game and it only gets exciting, right? You know they're playing in low-hole card and top level, but it gets very exciting when this happens. This man has all these chips. It's the worldwide poker tournament. We're down to like three people and someone does this. He pushes all the chips to the middle. I'm all in. Now it gets exciting. Now they're going to lay down those cards, right? And either he's going to take the whole pot, he's going to lose everything. You know what your sacrifice to God is? You know what the living God wants for you? He wants you and me to take all the chips of our life, a stack of family, a stack of future, a stack of money, push them to the middle and say, "God, you deal. You deal my future. You deal my ministry. You deal my family." And then he says, "That's the first step." And then he says, "You're now in a battle." I mean, every day, every billboard, every commercial. Do you realize every single commercial is designed for one thing to make you dissatisfied? You watch the commercial and you realize, "Oh, that's a newer car. If I had that car, then I would be happy." Oh, you know what? Oh, my lands. If I had that cream, I could put it on my face and I'll be young forever. Or better, better, better yet. I can make my teeth super white. And if I drink this beer, beautiful women will jump in the car with me, just like on the commercial. And so, every single day, the messages are the only way you'll be happy is what? Sex, salary, status, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And when you have all these things, and then it moves on, even to other things, like, if you really want to be happy, you need to be sexy. And so, you need to pump iron. And if you start to get old, we have surgeries to fix that. And when you go to the airport, if your bag doesn't have an insignia, so people know, right? You leave it though. Or if you don't have a Rolex, or it's subtle. But what I want you to hear is, you're being bombarded every moment of every day. And here's the point. To seduce your heart away that significance, security, and happiness will come through, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And whether it's Cosmo, or People Magazine, or Forbes, those are the messages. Now, is there anything wrong with sex? Of course not, God created it. Is there anything wrong with money? No, it's a stewardship to be a good steward of. Is there anything wrong if God would happen to make you famous? Of course not. But if those things become the source of what you think will bring satisfaction, then you will live your life chasing money, and fame, and sex. And notice, literally, it says, do not conform. Grammatically, it's stop allowing yourself to be conformed to this world. That's what the grammar is. And start allowing yourself to be transformed. And then how do you change? We all want to change at times, right? That keeps coming out of my mouth, or I'm lusting in my mind, or I'm jealous and envious of this person, or I have a nice car, but I really want that one. How do you change? Does it say try harder, try harder, try harder, be religious, be religious? What's it say? By the renewing of your mind, life transformation happens when you renew your mind. The most important decision you will make every single day of your life is not what you eat. It's what you put in your mind, and what you allow your mind to think about. Proverbs 23 and 7 says, a man or a woman is what? The product of your thinking. As a man thinks in his heart, so he becomes. Colossians 3 will say, set your mind on the things of heaven, not on the things on earth. Set your mind on the things that are above. Romans 8 will tell us the mindset on the flesh is death. The mindset on the spirit is life and peace. And here's what he's saying. I love you. You're in a battle. I want you to experience the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. I want to give you the best relationships. I want you to be fitted for the best job in the best place. I want you to have the deepest joy. And so you're in this battle. So how do you get the best from God? You say no to the world system, and you renew your mind in the scriptures. You renew your mind with great relationships. You renew your mind with great music. And God will give you. You already have the mind of Christ. I did not grow up ever reading the Bible. And I, like most young men who played athletics or didn't play athletics, I developed a mindset about the opposite sex. And that I learned that, you know, to older people, you act like the all American boy, get good grades, be very kind, be very nice. I learned in the locker room to pretend to be very tough. And since I'm very small, I always found the biggest guy, and I made him my friend, and he was my enforcer. And I was a very insecure, mouthy, arrogant young man who would be friend someone very big. And I would cuss and scream and tell people on the team what to do. And if they gave me trouble, you take care of them. Six eight, six nine. And then with girls, I realized that doesn't work. What you need to be is sweet. And tell them whatever they want to hear. And not so that you could love them. But so you could take advantage of them. It brings destruction. And I became a Christian when I was 18, right after high school. I went away to college, and in my college, there were four girls for every boy. You could be ugly and get lots of dates. And I made a commitment to the Lord, and I made a commitment to be sexually pure. And I kept that commitment. It was very, very hard. I mean, it was the day of the, you know, the 70s, the sexual revolution, and everybody was sleeping with everyone. But I thought I'm not going to be a hypocrite. But my mind, my lust. I had so patterned my mind that when I would see a girl, I would sit with the basketball team in a cafeteria, and it was at the bottom of the girls dorm, one of the girls dorms, seven floors of girls, and they would all walk by to get their food. And the basketball team, we would sit here, and I'm embarrassed to say this 5.2, 8.3, 10. And we would just talk about the women and lust for them. And I said, Oh, God, I'm so sorry. I'll never do that again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And then I would do it again. It's God. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I mean, I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried. And I could not break the power of lust. And so I remember I got so discouraged. I thought I will not be a hypocrite. I took my Bible. I had one little poster that said to the glory of God, I took it off my wall, I put my Bible, and I stuck it in the drawer, and I said, Lord, I quit the Christian life because I can't be one. And he didn't give up on me. And by accident, something happened. My roommate was a wrestler. He was a heavyweight wrestler. Very, very, very big guy. I always like really big strong guys to take care of him. And he was going to go to, it was called a Christian training program. You go to another city, lived there for like two months in the summer. And he had to memorize these 60 verses called the topical memory system. And we were very competitive, you know, wrestlers or losers, basketball players or winners. We were just teasing, you know, but we were very competitive, and we were in a Bible study together, and so he had to have all 60 verses done in about three months before he could go to this program. So he leaves the room. I get his cards, I find a pen, I chop up, I actually still have them with me, and they're my briefcase, and I chopped up these little cards and I wrote down all the verses, the word of God, prayer, you know, and all these categories, and I wrote down all 60 of them and he didn't know it. And so I thought to myself, you know, he's a wrestler, he's going to memorize, you know, two or three verses a week, over 90 days, and he's going to get his little thing on that. No, no, no, that's not basketball players. I'm going to do a verse every day, you know, because we're bad, and so, and I'm going to have them perfect, and there was a topic, and the verse, and then you said at the end, and so I did one each day, and then I had this gift, and I mean, if you're in academia, forgive me, but I had a tenured professor in psychology that was my major, that was perhaps the most boring teacher on the face of the earth, and it didn't matter what he said, that the test always came from the book. And so I would go to psychology class, and I would put my book up in the back row, and all I did is review my verses for an hour, every day. And so I memorized a verse every day, reviewed it, and so I wanted to keep up with him. So I had about 21 verses down cold on my way to 60, and I remember coming around a corner, and I should probably not say your name, a beautiful co-ed who was in the ministry came around the corner that I had a crush on. And she was very beautiful and very godly, which when you're a Christian man struggling with lust, let me just be as candid as I can. When you lust for non-Christian women, you feel guilty. When you lust for godly women, you feel terrible. And I mean, I honestly, you know, we're laughing. There's people in this room that have porn addictions, okay? You're in this room and you have a porn addiction, and you've tried really hard. There's probably some women that have either amount or you have a eating disorder. We're talking about things that you want to change, and no matter what you do, you can't. And you cry out to God and you feel guilty, and who you project you are and who you really are produced is such unbelievable tension. And that's where I was living, and I came around, and she was there, and I can still remember right in front of the library, and there's a building with bricks, and there's Ivy on the building, and we had a conversation, and we got done, and I started walking around. Oh my gosh. I didn't lust. My eyes only went to her eyes. I had a brother sister relationship, and I started going, "Oh my gosh, what happened?" And then I started to go, you know, there was two cafeterias. I started toward the cafeteria with the basketball players, putting myself in the same position to keep sending, doing the same things, and a thought came that never came before. Go to the other cafeteria, okay, that was verse 21. I did all 60 verses and 60 days. All I can tell you, here's trying hard, trying hard, trying hard, does not produce life change. Renewing your mind transforms your life. I mean, I got so excited, I'm free, but isn't that what Jesus said? You'll know the truth. If you abide in the truth, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. You know how many Christians aren't free? Because you're the product of your thought life. Netflix here, tablet here, phone here, wanting that purse here, wanting that car there, advertisements here, your mind is flooded with that, instead of your mind flooded with God's word. I got, it was like, "Oh my, this is how you change." So I started remembering hundreds of verses, and then I thought, "Wow, I'm going to go for chapters." And so I did, like Romans 12, was my first chapter, and then it was like, I was playing basketball over a season. It was like, "There's long times on this bus, then we did the Book of James, then we did the Book of Philippians." You know, and all I can tell you is, then God, you know, we sang about, he marks your life. I would be walking along and I would be praying, "Oh Lord, I don't know about BANG, a verse would come to my mind." I would be sitting and talking with someone, and they would ask a hard question. I would go, "Oh, a verse would come to my mind." I would be tempted in my mind, a verse would come to my mind. I didn't know much about the Bible. I didn't know that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and it's the spoken Word of God. And that when you're tempted, Jesus said it is written, it is written, it is written. Bam, the enemy leaves. So the normal Christian life is someone on a point in time, says, "I'm surrender to you." That's the moment of the Lordship, now, how do you grow? I say no to the world's system, if you would like to try this in a radical way, do at least a three-day media pass this week. I see I don't have a lot of takers on that. No, no, only do it if you want to break a habit and experience God in a powerful way. I would not do it unless that's. But no movies. Your phone only for work that you really need, no surfing the net, just for three days. You will detox your mind. And with all that extra time, it's just a suggestion. And by the way, God loves you if you do this. He loves you if you don't. But if you would take Romans chapter 12, and literally at that time, if you kind of wrote it down and put it on your phone, and you would memorize over here, Romans 12, and just for three days limit the world, it will rock you out. You'll experience God for some of you like you never have. And you'll realize all my trying hard, it's renewing your mind. The first question that we ask in our life is, this was my prayer as an unbeliever, "God, if you exist, what do you want from me?" And he answers, "Chip, I want you, your heart." The second question is, "Lord, how do I get the very best? I want the best wife, I want the best future, I want the best kids, I want the best job in the right place, how would I ever get your good, acceptable, and perfect will?" He says, "Say no to the world, renew your mind." And then he says, "Third, we have a relationship with God, we have a relationship with the world, now we have a relationship with ourself." In relationship with yourself, a disciple has a sober self-assessment. Your surrender to God, you're progressively separate from the world's values, and now he says, "For the grace given to me, I say to everyone, one among you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but rather think of yourself with a sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." And then he gives us a picture. Just as we have one body, physical body, with many members, and these members do not have the same function, so in Christ we are, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. And then if you think, "Well, where in the body do I fit?" Well, we have different gifts according to the grace that's given us. If a man's gift is prophecy, let him use it according to the proportion of his faith. If it's serving, let him serve. If it's teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing to the needs of the saints or giving, let him do it generously. If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. And if it's showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. And go back to the very first where it says, "By the grace of God," I said, "Everyone of you do not underline the word "think" of yourself more highly than you, and the word "ot," underline "ot," but rather "think," underline "think," and then with sober. So think, "ot," think, sober. In the original text, it's all the same root word. The translators make it a little bit easier to read. It's literally, "Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but think of yourself with a sober." It's the opposite of being drunk. In other words, when you're drunk, what happens? You lose perception. Reality is different. Here's what he's saying. Don't think you highly of yourself. Don't think too lowly of yourself. Think accurately, then he gives this word "according" to the measure of faith that God's given you. When we hear faith, we tend to think that that always means our personal faith. This is talking about the faith. It's an objective reality. I want you to see yourself the way God sees you. You are a daughter of the living God. You are a son, despite working on your phone of the living God. I wasn't trying to catch you, it just came. It's probably you're taking notes, right, bro? I got you. I got you. He was not being wooed away by the world. This guy is taking notes right now, right? And if not, we'll talk later. But can you imagine, instead of longing for acceptance, longing to be chosen, longing to be valued, longing for someone to love you, if you actually believed by faith, what God says in the first three chapters of Ephesians? You are chosen, you're wanted, you're valuable. You're redeemed you've been sealed with the spirit. You're secure. You have a living hope You have a place in heaven reserve for you. You matter You matter regardless of how you look you matter no matter what anybody else thinks You are the right size you have the right eyes you have the right IQ you have the right personality You process information exactly how God wants you to why? Because he has a purpose for you And Don't you think a good Heavenly Father would deposit in you everything you need so you could fulfill now There's a general purpose for all of us, right? love God love people But there's a specific purpose a good work a calling that's unique to you and So the way you find your purpose is start with Who did God make me to be? Do it is so are you starting to see? Start with me, you know if I'm surrendered to God in Your notes write this word next to the on the right right the word power See these things relate to one another they build on one another I Want you to imagine there is a a an infinite lake up in heaven and When you look at the lake it says grace, you know what grace is? Grace is the one two and the will to and the power to do all the God want you to do and it's absolutely free And it flows and it flows and it flows and it flows and the moment that you came to know Jesus now this is chip's picture so don't Don't go tell someone the Bible says this. This is my picture and And there's this invisible hoes It's about this big around and it comes down from heaven and no one can see it and it's attached to the back of your head And and this grace that is available all the time is flowing flowing flowing give you the will to do What's right love this person this person makes me mad? Oh, I'm gonna forgive him It's it just it flows and flows and flows but you have a little switch and The off switch stops the flow doesn't mean you're not a Christian, but no grace is flowing Surrender power And then once you receive that power How do you keep the flow of God's grace you renew your mind and The word of God and the people of God an authentic community and you renew your mind even even as you give your life away You go to the YMCA you you care for the elderly someone at work that bothers you you begin to pray for them some someone that Really you have a supervisor that is very unkind and you have resentment in your heart You bring coffee on Monday and say hey, I just was thinking of you today And you know what will happen. I don't know what will happen. You have this like Wow, why do I have this joy in my life? Sometimes when I'm discouraged, you know, we all get tired. We all get discouraged What I know is given it'll be given unto you sometimes I've been in the line and maybe I've traveled a lot of countries and my back hurts and I'm battling you ever ever feel like there's just negativity coming at you and I want to have a good attitude I want to have a good attitude, but boy. I'm really close not having a good attitude And so oh lord, will you give me grace will you please help me and I was in the line This was a while ago and and the airplane pilot pilot came and I was at I stopped at a lot of Starbucks All over the world and I ordered my coffee and I just turned to this pilot and I said So what are you getting and he he told me I said would you put his and mine on my card and he looked me like What are you doing and I mean, I cost me three bucks, right or something and and then so I fixed mine I went over and nobody deal and he comes over and he said hey Thank you No one's ever done that for me in my whole life and It was such a small thing I I keep extra money in my pocket see I think Jesus cares about the marginalized and left to myself. I don't And so often you know when you go like in in restrooms with the airport You know the very poor person and you can tell often they're very old and they're cleaning the restroom And I think to myself I bet they have a family Does anyone does anyone really care about them and it may not be a lot, but you know I just and I and this doesn't make me wonderful. It just what it changes me. So I might just like You know, just go very discreetly Excuse me. I want to I want to thank you for just keeping this clean for all of us, okay? Thank you so much and and you know their eyes and often I don't speak the language and they'll look at you like and I'll just You know Jesus and you know who changes me me see you renew your mind and when you begin I'm already loved the gospel is not be a good Christian try hard do good works And then maybe God will love me the gospel is he has lavish his love on me. There's a lake of grace Surrender renew your mind have an accurate view of yourself and then give your life away and Then he says and then here's how you'll know where and how just as we have many members You know Daniel I got to know Daniel and his wife. I learned what his gifts were and then I got to hear where the church is going And then I learned and I met Andre and I heard his gifts Do you understand that Daniel's gifts were like this and what he needed was Andre for the church to continue that's true of all of us Where we this this is a a series we called it a churchwide campaign that we've done here in places around the world and At this point I give everyone a three by five card. It's all printed and on the left side it says your top three weaknesses On the right side. It says your top three strengths and I have everyone just fill that out and then you can understand Oh, these are my strengths and instead of pretending I'm strong everywhere. These are my weaknesses Then you understand God has given other people with strengths and this is where you fit and then we give them we take him through a journey And take a test and they know their primary spiritual gift And when you know, okay I'm going to practice various things But if it my focus is in me on teaching because I'm gifted to teach or my focus is going to be on leadership So people can ask me all kind of things, but now I know these are my strengths These are where I need other people. This is my gift now. Guess what you discover your purpose Surrender is the key to power Being separate from the world is the key to peace in the world you'll have tribulation, but I've overcome the world And I know this is a Broad group with many different people, but here's what I can tell you And and it's not please do not hear that I've overcome all this What I can tell you is when you go to Bible study on Wednesday or church and you go out and hit every bar on Thursday night with the basketball team What you do not have this peace And I don't know what your issue is and I'm not talking about perfection But what I know is that when when issues are unresolved And the only way to have peace is to renew your mind To see who you are Surrender will produce peace being separate from the world or surrender is power separate from the world is peace a Sober self-assessment will help you discover your purpose Because he made you for a job and it answers the question how to come to grips with the real you From the time you're a little boy or little girl to a teenager to young adult to getting very old We all look in the mirror and wonder who am I really? Who am I really? And if you begin to answer that question because you have voices voices from your family of origin Voices from the culture you need to be you need to look like you need to do you need to achieve and we get on these Performance tracks and we try to be like other people the most beautiful beautiful person on the face of the earth is the DNA deposited uniquely in the person in your seat and God has made you Exactly physically emotionally the spiritual gifts to do what no one else can do and you can spend most of your life Trying to look or sound or achieve or be like someone else and the problem is there's already one of them And there is a freedom And you know and can you just it's not just accepting your strengths It's also just accepting your weaknesses. You know, you know, I think it's okay to say guess what I'm not very good at I need help So that's humility and isn't it interesting that we all know people right who kind of strut their stuff You know, people somewhere that appear to have it all together. And when you get close to them, do you feel very comfortable and want to be their friend? When people have it quote altogether, by the way, they're lying. But when people, when you sit down over coffee and even if you don't know someone very well and you have a conversation and they just begin in an appropriate way to just open up a little bit and maybe share something that they're struggling with just a little, what happens to you? Don't you feel invited into their life? Because what do you know? You have struggles too. We all do. See, can I tell you, this is normal Christianity. This is what it means to be a disciple. Praying, giving, those are practices that you studied recently. Those practices put you in a position to let the grace of God allow you to surrender, be set for the world, have a sober self-assessment. And then here's a question, how many people long to experience God's presence? And you really long to experience the presence of God in authentic community, to really be connected to people. The fourth relationship is with believers. He says, love must be sincere, literally it's love must be without hypocrisy, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another and brotherly love, honor one another above yourselves, never lacking in zeal but keeping your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, share it with God's people who are in need and practice hospitality. If we had time, in each of these sections, I have a message on them. And I'll give you the app and there's a website if you want to do it. But this message I love, authentic community happens when the real you meets real needs for the right reason in the right way. Notice the real you, let love be without hypocrisy. The word is sincere or hypocrisy in your notes, sincere. This is a word from the Greek theater that Paul pulled. And in the Greek theater, all the actors were male. And so to be, you had to learn to throw your voice. I might dress up as an old man in one scene, a young man in another scene, or as a woman in a dress in another scene. And then they would have a mask that would have the picture of an old man or a young man or a woman. And they could throw their voice to be a great actor. And Paul takes that word from mask and he says, let love be without hypocrisy. Now I'm going to say something and just relax because it's true of me, it's true of you, it's true of everyone. In our humaneness, we all project what I call a spiritual hologram, you know, like Star Words, right, you know, the hologram. And what I project is someone that is more kind, more loving, and more holy than I really am. Because what I've learned is I want you to like me. I want you to accept me. And so in different groups, your antenna is, they respond to this, they respond to that. And we often put up a different hologram in different groups so that people will like us. And even when they respond with kindness and act like they really like us, here's the problem. What we know in the heart of hearts, it's just a hologram. They're not loving you, they're loving what you project. And so until the real you shows up, and then notice the real you can't show up unless you're being authentic, but the real you can't show up unless you're pure. He says, let love be without a hypocrisy, then this word of whore, what is evil, cling to what is good. When I had my private lust issue, or when I have a private envy issue, or maybe I've been hurt and I resent someone, I have to keep, when I keep that as a secret, then the real me can't come out. And then he says, be devoted to one another. This is so different than so many churches. I see this happening here. We've transformed Christianity to mean, once a week I go to a meeting. I listen to people sing, I listen to someone talk. We go to lunch, we evaluate how the singing was. We talk about, oh, I really liked so and so, or boy, he really went long or whatever. And then we check a little box in our emotional, like I guess I'm a good Christian, and I'm trying to be nicer than most people, and a little bit more moral. I got news for you. That is not the kind of Christianity that rocked and changed the world. Normal disciples, our surrender to God, and experiences power, are separate from the world's values, and experiences peace. They have a sober, accurate view of themselves, and they discover their purpose. And they are deeply committed in authentic community, and guess what they experience as presents. You know, earlier today, my back really hurt. I was really struggling. I've got a titanium bar in my back, and I got a muscle spasm, and I experienced God's love. I experienced God's love, and Randy, you know, I was on my bed, and he's doing this, and doing that, and then his wife came and said, here's some patches, and his daughter came and said, you know, here's some pills I take that helped me, and everything they wanted to do, I felt God say, I'm going to take care of you. If you're waiting for a hug from God to get a call on the phone, you're going to wait a long time. I love it. Don't get me wrong. Like I had. I love it when I have these moments when the Holy Spirit speaks, or when I'm reading the scriptures and it like comes off the page, but most of the time, the way you experience God's presence is Jesus lives inside Daniel. Jesus lives inside of him. You've already got a lot of money, so Jesus lives inside of him, I'm teasing, and when they allow the Jesus to come out in them, you experience him, and I experience him, and that's the authentic community. And he said, if we love one another like that, what would the world know? The Father sent Jesus, so it's not like an extra thing, like, am I going to join a small group? We're not, are you kidding? It is in the container of a small group, but authentic community occurs. The final one is a relationship with non-believers, and especially opposition, supernaturally responding to evil with good. Blessed those who persecute you, blessed those in curse not, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony with one another, do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceded, you ready? Do not repay evil for evil to anyone. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. It's possible, it's not always possible, if possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, he's thirsty, give him a drink, and so doing you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. One of the questions you have to answer in a fallen world is how do I overcome the evil that's aimed at me? Jesus promised, for all those who live a godly life, we will be persecuted. In the world, we'll have tribulation. How do we respond? The word blessed means the desire for God's favor and goodness to happen to a person. The word curse means a longing for evil and destruction to happen. So people that long for you to be cursed, that your life would fall apart, he says bless them. And then he says never repay evil for evil. Can you imagine what it was like in the first century as Nero blames the Christians? And arm and arm, they go into stadiums singing and asking God to forgive those as the animals came out and tore them apart? And they had hope that heaven is real. They believed when Jesus said, these are the most radical words, Paul, if you study this carefully, he literally is taking the sermon on the mount and he's transposing them into a Greek mindset and into a didactic way where they can get their arms around it. Jesus said, what, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. On the cross, do you remember what he said, father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Here's the thing, you can't fake this. This isn't trying hard and being religious. Stephen, when he's being stoned, what did he say, father, forgive them. And here's the thing, don't have time to develop this, but good is actually more powerful than evil. think of the person in your life that's giving you the hardest time that's the most difficult, and here's begin to pray a blessing for their life, a blessing for your ex, a blessing for the bad boss, a blessing for the person who ripped you off, a blessing on the person who took money from you, and this is what you're saying is, in other words, when you have resentment in your heart and when you have bitterness in your heart, it's like taking poison and drinking it and hoping the other person will die. He says, "No, no, no, you have to be free of that, and the only way to be free is you have to forgive a choice, then blessing is the forgiving process." And then what you say is we don't want to forgive people because it feels like we're taking them off the hook. At the heart of not forgiving is I want them to get what they deserve because they hurt me, right? And God says, "Stop, either you can do this or I can do this." Why don't instead you take them off of your hook, and why don't you put them on mine? I'm a just God, and I will make sure everything is fair, either in this life or the life to come. And then, but he says, "Here's your job. You don't give evil for evil." And so you bless them, and then sometimes you have to do it anonymously, but then you do good. You pray for them. I was deeply, deeply betrayed in a situation, and I prayed for this person for over two years. I never took the Lord's Supper without praying and asking God to bless him. My first prayers went like this. God showed him how rotten he is and what he did to me. God, cause him to change, cause him to repent, cause him to pay back all that money, and all those things that he ripped off from the ministry and all the rest. And those prayers were not making much progress with God. And eventually, it was the Lord I want you to bless him. And then he, something that switched for me, he said, "Chip, have I given you what you deserve?" Oh no. Right? The Lord is merciful. "Freely you've received." "Freely give." Now, let's get serious. When you've been wounded, betrayed. Maybe someone walked out on you. Maybe they had an affair. Maybe they ripped off my, I mean, maybe it was your parents. Maybe you were abused by someone. I mean, we're not talking light stuff. This is the kind of things you have to come to God. And then you have to release them to Him. And then this process of praying and blessing them. And I'll never forget it was about two years. Someone came and told me something good about this person's ministry and my instant response after two years of praying was it was a work of God. I was actually glad something could happen. And then I knew I was done. He's forgiven. See, what we have here is a profile of a normal Christian's life. We made this the profile. I remember with a group of pastors in Lagos, Nigeria. And I'll close with this because it was so helpful. We were talking about we really wanted it right. Go into all the world and come to church. No, no, no. Go into all the world and at least lead people to Christ. No, no. Go into all the world and help people get religious. Oh gosh, I still can't get it. Go into all the world and make disciples. You got to ask the question, what is a disciple and how do you measure it? And if you can't articulate that, you can't become it. And what I want you to know, the Apostle Paul knew, especially for some of us who think the way we think that if your surrender to God are progressively separate from the world's values, you develop a sober self-assessment. You're serving in love and supernaturally respond to evil with good. You are on the pathway of S1, S2, S3, progression and maturity. And God will use your life and give you joy. And it's a journey. I'd like you to bow your head as we close and ask you if you have, you've sung it. But if you have never, at a certain day, at a certain time, said to the Lord, "I'm all in." Could you right now in the privacy of your heart? I'm sure with some fear, concerned about the future. It's the most logical, best thing you'll ever do. Could you visualize all the chips of your life in saying, "Lord Jesus, I'm all in." You're my Lord. Whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, that's what I want. If you're struggling right now as we all do, and maybe it's an addiction or maybe it's just something that God has shown you, He doesn't want that to be a part of your life. You're not going to get His best. Would you be willing to just cry out to your Heavenly Father and say, "I've repent. I change my mind." Lord, I want to begin to renew my mind and I'm going to say, "No, it's sucking me away from you." And finally, if you've been deeply, deeply hurt, and when I talked about blessing someone, everything in you rose up like, "Oh, Lord, I don't know that I could ever do that." Would you be just willing to say, "God, if you'll help me, if you would give me the grace, I will choose to forgive them and release them in the way that you have forgiven me." Before Pastor comes, would you just have some private moments and talk with your Heavenly Father? He loves you. Can he longs for you to be a Romans 12 Christian?