I Choose Hope - Finding Hope, Part 2

Is it possible to be an absolutely moral person, even go to church faithfully, but completely miss out on a real relationship with God?

Could that be you? Find out today. Today, Chip picks up where he left off last time in our study of Philippians chapter 3 in our series, I Choose Hope. In this program, he'll describe the connection between what we worship and what we put our faith in. And now we can actually worship something or someone more than God, not even realize it. A sobering thought, huh?

Well, let's learn about our true source of hope and who we should be worshiping as we join Chip for part two of his talk, Finding Hope. I kept all the rules. I was morally pure. I fasted the right days. I went to the temple. I sacrificed.

If you can get there on your own, I was over here. But what's he say? I count it. The word is garbage in one translation. It's dung in another translation. It's just a really graphic word.

It's poopoo. He said, I look at all the junk, all the self-effort, all the religiosity compared to intimacy and life and grace and power and the transformation. Over here, I was a slave to religion. I'm a son of God.

I was a slave. And when you try to earn it on your own, you get arrogant. And anyone who doesn't disagree, you take them out. So he tried to take out the church. And then Jesus revealed himself, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And then he doesn't say, this is very interesting, notice in your text, he doesn't say, for whose sake I lost all of that. He changes the word, whose sake I've lost all things.

You got to understand, let's not make this like Bible world. This is a guy that is a Roman citizen, comes up in Tarsus. There's sort of the elite, the Harvard, the Yale, the Stanford of his day. That's where he, and he's the number one student of the number one professor. And he's the star.

I mean, he's the man. He's so much so that, boy, when this way, this Christianity starts, he goes after them. He lost his reputation, alienated from his family, kicked out of his position of power, lost his money, became an outlaw, ended up being persecuted. When he says, I lost all things, this isn't some theoretical, oh, this is a transfer of intellectual issues. This is, I count all of it, not just the religious side, but everything I've lost, everything that people value, power, money, fame, success, career, upward mobility.

He had all that. He goes, all of that compared to Christ. Where's his hope? It's in a person. It's in a person who's the second person of the Godhead, who from the foundation of the earth would give us freedom to choose to accept or reject him. And then knowing the consequences would actually, from the foundations of the earth, agree with the Father and agree with God, the Holy Spirit, that he would come and be born, that he would grow up absolutely dependent and live an absolutely perfect life so that people would know. You ever wonder what God's like? Jesus said, the Father and I are one.

He came and he explained him. You read through the gospels. You want to know what God is like?

Just look at Jesus' life. You know what he feels? This is how he feels about hypocritical people.

It's not pretty. This is what he feels about people that are hurting and broken and honest and come. And then he came knowing that he came to seek and to save that which is lost. So he purposely set his face like a flint and said, I'm going to go to that cross.

I know the break. It's going to be with the Father. I'm going to hang on that cross. And when I hang on that cross, I'm going to take the sins of all people of all time. And I will be the sin offering being fully man and fully God.

And the Father will pour his just wrath out on the sin that separates people. And I will absorb it. And in that moment, he'll turn away and I will be hidden in the earth. And I'll declare the victory in the Sheol is the word, the place of the dead. And I will rise in victory and conquer Satan, conquer sin, conquer death. And I will ascend to the Father and I will be at his right hand and I will open my arms to whosoever would believe. I will forgive your sin.

I will bring you in relationship with me. And eternal life will begin the moment you turn from your sin and receive me and walk and follow me. The surpassing value and the Spirit of God is the one who will live inside of you and you will be sealed and you will be adopted and you will have an inheritance.

And the Spirit of God will actually manifest the very presence and person of Jesus so that the goal of the Christian life is not fire insurance. The goal isn't I pray to prayer. The goal isn't that I have life after death. The goal is I didn't have a relationship with God and now the surpassing value is I am now connected with God solely and completely based on Christ's work on the cross and his resurrection. And the goal is to love him and to be loved by him. That's what Paul is saying. Over here it was this is what I can do. This is what I've achieved. Over here this is what God has done and this is what I receive.

Do you see the difference? His hope. His moorings. His future. It's in Jesus.

Question. Is your relationship right now with Jesus growing more passionate and rich and real? Are you experiencing deeply God's love?

His forgiveness? Promptings from his spirit? A hunger for his word? A sense that there's purpose and direction and that he actually wants to even use you to help others and that as you do that things happen you can't explain? In other words is your unconscious passion to be just a little bit more moral and try and get God to work things out so that what your hope really is in can come in?

Or is it in himself? See God doesn't give his glory to another and he won't be a means. He's not a means for your kids to get into the right school. He's not a means for you to be happy. He's not a means for your life to work out right. He's not a means that if you believe in Jesus your marriage just goes great. He's not a means that all your kids turn out right. He's not a means. He's the end. Now the amazing thing about grace is as your hope is in him there's sort of a domino effect that it impacts all those other things but none of those things ever can become your hope. In fact we're warned often don't let him. Not because God's mad because he loves us and doesn't want us to miss.

There's three big takeaways I think that are super practical from this passage I'd like to share with you. Whatever we put our hope in will determine what we worship. Whatever we put our hope in will determine what we worship. If my hope is in my job I worship it. If my hope is in my family or my mate I worship it. If my hope is in someday someway I'm going to I will worship it. If my hope is in money I'll worship it. False hope is always focused on the external the rules the laws success status and salary and the confidence in that hope is this is what I got to do. Workaholism believe me I understand that one. It's all about what you can accomplish.

What you've got to do. In the text it was circumcision the law and religious works but in our day the external can be church attendance or morals. The external can be you worship education. You worship your kids. Your whole life is around your kids.

Their education their sports their traveling team can be money. It can be it can be your looks. I mean I believe in working out as much as anybody. I got news for you no matter how many vitamins you take how much you work out and how many surgeries you can afford you're going to get old.

And you're going to get wrinkles and probably a lot more. But you know you know what. Ask yourself what's my hope in. Is it when I make partner.

Is it when my kids get in this school. See what happens is if your hopes in anything other than Jesus it doesn't have the power to deliver it. And so false hope is an external things and the confidence is in yourself and what you can achieve and the source of real hope is always internal. It's a rich deep growing relationship with Christ.

It's grace. There's a sense of dependency. There's a sense of gratitude and empowerment. And finally it's confidence in what he's done. And so this is another one of those questions I'm asking me and you.

If you don't give me words but I could see your financial statements where all your time goes what you think about what you dream about and what you want to happen and what gets you really down. You would know in a minute what your hope is and what you really worship. I have a concern that an intellectual understanding of what it means to be a Christian has substituted what it means to be a genuine follower. And what I can tell you is there's just great pictures in our church of both people who I see when difficulty and pain and adversity comes. It's obvious where their hope is and they cave. And I had a conversation just this week of maybe the most of all difficulty and I was in amazement at a man and his wife of where their hope is rooted.

Because takeaway number two is false hope always ends in either pride or despair. If you happen to be pretty successful unconsciously or consciously it's look at me look at what I did. I'm a self-made man a self-made woman. Look at my success. Look at my family.

I've got how many patents. Look at what I built. Look at what I wear. Look at how I dress. Look at me.

I mean we're Christians so we do it in subtle ways but we do it. The problem is that no matter what you achieve the horizon is always moving. Had an elder many many years ago in a church that I served many many years ago and he loved these sailboats and people would be talking. He goes the thing is when you're on a sailboat and if you're kind of sailing toward the sun the horizon is always moving. And I didn't know exactly what he meant he goes you know people think I'm single once I get married then.

No no no no. Well then if we have some kids well then if our kids turn out right then then then then then and the hope just keeps changing and then people realize it doesn't have the power to deliver. I've actually sat across the table from a man who was being completely honest with me who was a billionaire. Who he would only be satisfied when there was a new number behind how many billions he would have and he was a follower of Jesus but his hope was in his money.

Super high levels of debt tell you what your hope is in things. I mean do you have the 4k yet. I mean has the Apple 12 come out yet.

Has Samsung done. I mean and it's like an addiction. Are you ready to spend all kind of money this Christmas that you don't have to impress people that don't care to get someone to look at you and say oh wow you're wonderful. And at the same time. And again you know if this produces a little discomfort. Good.

I just can't. I just came back from people that are pastoring churches of five hundred thousand people. They don't even have a library. Now they got two books they got a Bible and the one I gave them. It always leads to despair. Or pride. First Timothy 1 or 6 17 says instruct those that are rich in this present world not to be conceited. Or arrogant and fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God by the way. Who gives us all things look at the last line why so that you can not have anything to richly enjoy.

Having things is not the problem. It's our priorities and where's our focus and where's our hope. I had a challenging experience when I lived in Atlanta. We got to be a part of a church plant and one of the really key members was a guy that had done well live in a very nice country club. Knew all the right language as a spiritual guy and was at the foundation group of launching the church and probably a year or so after I left I got news of. And he had this fund and I don't know if he was a hedge fund guy or whatever this or that and all I can tell you was he went missing. He was missing for like a week and they found him a week later at a cabin and he had this fund and the thing had slowly gone down, gone down, gone down, gone down. And he hid it because his identity and hope was really in I'm a rich generous guy.

And they found him and he put a shotgun in his mouth and a note that said I'm sorry I failed everyone and it just broke my heart. See we can intellectually think our hope is in Christ. Here's how you know. Just look at your behavior.

Your behavior never lies. What I believe and what you believe has almost nothing to do with what we say or what we think we believe. What we believe is how we actually behave.

Our behavior reveals the core of our beliefs. It will happen again this year as tests are taken and we will have high school students that do not get the grades they want and they won't pass the tests they want and they will do what they do here very often so much that it's almost not reported. And they will step in front of a train because their hope is they didn't get into that school and the pressure they feel and the shame that they think they're going to bring on their family.

And it's real here. Education is not hope. Money is not hope. How many likes is not hope. How many followers is not hope. What other people think of you is not hope. The only hope that will never disappoint is a deeply rooted relationship with a God who will come through all the time. Finally true hope is rooted in relationship and results in joy and endurance.

There's a byproduct. If there's no joy in your life let me tell you this. Your hope is somewhere but it's not in Christ. He loves you. He's for you. He'll take you through any circumstance. He doesn't promise it's always going to be easy. In fact what he promises is going to be tribulation. But he'll not only give you joy, he'll give you endurance. Hope is built in Jesus who left heaven, paid for you, loved you, cares for you. If you're a follower he lives in you.

He'll guide you, direct you, protect you, sustain you. You might have a lot. You might have a little. You might be single. You might be married. You might have kids.

You might not. But he promises that the fruit of his living life as you stay connected to him is you'll experience love and peace and joy and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. And your life will be full.

Not easy. But it's built on a hope and an endurance. The apostle Paul would say it well in Romans 5. Therefore we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom we've obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. That's what Paul was saying. He goes on to say, but we also boast or exalt in hope.

Are you ready? Of the glory of God. And not only this, but we exalt in our tribulation. See when really hard times come, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, you hang in there. You just hang in there. That's why we need each other.

That's why we need his word. Hard things happen. And perseverance brings about proven character. It's in the vice of life and the difficulty that you actually change. And proven character produces hope.

Because what you realize is nothing out there can ever satisfy you, but nothing out there can ever make you or break you. And proven hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's given to us. Lord my prayer is that you would help us this season as never before to sink our roots deep into the hope of the living Christ. Our faith is not about how many times we pray or how many times we read the Bible or how many times we come to the church or a lot of external things.

Those things are great means, but they don't make us right. It's you. It's us believing your love, forgiveness, resurrection.

It's a relationship. So would you help us to put our hope in you like never before? And Lord I just feel compelled that you've brought maybe a handful of people that need to put their faith in you for the very first time. And so I ask if you're one of those people that say, I need Jesus.

I've been thinking about it. Could I invite you to find your hope in Him right now? To bow your heart and say to Him, Lord Jesus, today's my day. I want to turn from my sin and I ask you to forgive me. I place my trust in your work on the cross, your resurrection. Come into my life right now. Make me your son. Make me your daughter.

And He will. In Jesus' name. Amen. Before we do anything else, I want to say the same thing to you that I said to the people in the room that I was teaching. If you realize today that you're one of those people, that you know a lot about Jesus, that you've never surrendered to Him, you've never asked Him to forgive you personally, to come into your life, to be your Lord and to be your Savior. It's so easy to know all about God but not actually know Him. That was me for the first 18 years of my life. I went to a social church. I heard stories about Jesus. I intellectually believed there was a God. But I didn't know Him.

I didn't have a relationship. And today's your day. This is the day that He has broken through and you understand like never before, He loves you, He wants you, and that problem of sin, that problem of you not being the person you know and the depth of your heart you need to be, is solved if you receive the gift by faith. And so right now I would encourage you, I don't care whether you're running on the treadmill, driving in the car, you know there's kids in the backseat, taking a walk in the park, at this very moment I want you to pause within yourself and cry out to God, Lord Jesus save me. Today I believe you died in my place.

Today I believe you rose from the dead. Please forgive me of all my sins based solely on the work of Jesus and His resurrection and come into my life. Make me your son.

Make me your daughter. And as you have done that, God will answer that prayer. He longs to answer it and He will. In fact, if you just prayed with me, He did. So make sure you tell the greatest Christian you know, I prayed to receive Christ today. Number two, find a church this weekend that teaches the Bible. And number three, go to livingontheedge.org. That's livingontheedge.org and we have some free resources to help you on your new journey.

Welcome to the family. Well if you prayed with Chip, we do have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was specifically created for new believers. It's a tool that will help you gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to put your faith in Jesus. Request this free resource by calling us at 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingontheedge.org, then clicking on the New Believers button.

That's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Let us help you get started in your faith journey. Well Chip's with me in studio and before we go Chip, I can see you have one last thing you'd like to share with our listeners. Well we have a few minutes left so why don't you go ahead and do that. Dave, I appreciate that.

I just want to stop and pause with a very select group of people. You're people that pray for Living on the Edge. I know because you write and tell me and you're people who give to Living on the Edge. And as I have communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the power of God to salvation. And we know that when we share the gospel like this on a broadcast, literally hundreds and hundreds of people come to Christ. And so you're a part of that and we have reaped, not because we're special, but because the gospel is the power of God to salvation. But I want to just celebrate that reward and thank every one of you who pray and thank every single person who gives to this ministry. People's lives will be different forever and ever and ever because of you.

Thanks so much. Well as Chip said, if you're already a financial partner, thank you. With your help, Living on the Edge is ministering to more people than ever. But if you're benefitting from this ministry and haven't yet taken that step, well now's a great time to join the team. To become a monthly partner, go to livingontheedge.org or text donate to 74141.

That's the word donate to 74141 or visit livingontheedge.org. App listeners just tap donate. As we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of Chip's teaching, let me encourage you to download his message notes.

This helpful tool is available for every program. Chip's notes include his outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. Now you can download them at livingontheedge.org under the broadcasts tab, app listeners tap fill-in notes. Well until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.