Skip to content Warning: Personal Discipline Can be Hazardous to Your Health, Part 1 Aug 12 · 35 min ...more
Warning: Personal Discipline Can be Hazardous to Your Health, Part 1
August 12, 2025 · 35 min
Chip reveals the danger of becoming too disciplined in both your personal & spiritual life. Join Chip as he shares how to recognize the warning signs of an out-of-balance spiritual life.
Series Balancing Life's Demands August 12, 2025 · 35 min · Balancing Life's Demands
Chip reveals the danger of becoming too disciplined in both your personal & spiritual life. Join Chip as he shares how to recognize the warning signs of an out-of-balance spiritual life. ...more Show the full description Show less Chip reveals the danger of becoming too disciplined in both your personal & spiritual life. Join Chip as he shares how to recognize the warning signs of an out-of-balance spiritual life.
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Chip Ingram is an American Christian pastor, author, and teacher. He is the founder, teaching pastor and CEO of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry.
618K followers
The Pop Quiz of Spiritual Priorities 0:01 There is a potential downside to becoming a very spiritually disciplined Christian. I mean, it can be hazardous to your health, and that's what we wanna cover today. Stay with0:17 me. Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful bible teaching of Chip Ingram. And were you0:29 intrigued by Chip's setup? Can being a very spiritually disciplined person be bad for us? That sounds like an obvious contradiction, right? Well, today, Chip's gonna give us some clarity as he picks up in his series0:41 balancing life's demands. So if you're ready, go to Matthew chapter 5 in your bible as we dive right into Chip's talk.0:49 I want you to try to remember exactly where you were the last time you heard these words. Please take out a clean sheet of paper and a number 2 pencil.1:02 Put everything away, clear your desk. Number from 1 to 10, we're having a pop quiz. Okay, now you can open your eyes.1:13 And we, remember the feared pop quiz? That was a tool of accountability. Right? It was, did you read the assignment? Are you on track? Are you doing your work? And the way we will1:25 enforce that is when you don't suspect it. And I used to hate that, please take everything off your desk, my heart would sink. Number 2 pencil. Well I'm going to give you a pop1:37 quiz, and this is a for real 1, okay? So I mean, don't think like, oh this is kind of a nice illustration, no no no. You'll notice on your notes, it says to what degree, it's a biblical priorities pop quiz,1:49 to what degree have you taken specific steps in the following areas? And I told you earlier that I had that moment with Professor Hendricks where he went over to the board, and he told us, Remember, guys2:01 God loves you right now as much as he'll ever love you. The issue is, who do you really wanna be? And then in big letters he wrote the word objectives. And then under the words that, he wrote2:13 priorities. And then under that, he wrote the word schedule. And then he wrote discipline. And then he wrote accountability. Now as we take this pop quiz some of you are2:24 very intense, you're trying to be very deeply honest, would you be You know give yourself a good grade, okay? Don't be too hard on yourself. You'll notice, you know, there's a little box, I actually want you to2:36 put a number in the box. And so I'm going to give it, you know, the definition on the quiz, and then if you say none, you know, put a 1, if you well a little, put a 2.2:48 If you started, you know, and you're kinda doing okay or even making some progress, put a 3, if you're making making some good progress, and by the way, you know, some of you are so hard on yourself, if you feel3:00 like like when we get to accountability it's oh I meet with some people and I'm doing some things, well give yourself a 4, and then if you feel like I am vigorously pursuing this, I mean man I am intense in this area and3:11 I'm really trying to do what God wants me to do, give yourself a 5. So have you got it? There's the scoring. Question number 1, students. Number 2, pencil. Objectives, moving from3:23 vague ideas to specific decisions about the kind of person I want to become and what I want to accomplish. So, what are you? Are you moving from kind of vague3:35 ideas to some specific decisions that I want to be this kind of person, and these are some things I want to accomplish by God's grace in my life? If you've never thought about it and really don't care, give yourself3:47 a 1. If you're vigorously pursuing that and you've gone from some general decisions to hey you know what, even while I've been here, I've gotten some clarity, then write down a 4 or 5.3:59 And the first number that comes go with it, okay? I mean let's not over analyze this. I will be collecting the papers later however, no I'm just kidding. Question number 2, priorities.4:11 This is about how you spend your time, how you spend your money. The order, ordering my life in such a way that the important and eternal are not forfeited by the4:22 pressing and the urgent. It's that putting first things first, keeping first things first. Where are you at on that? None, little, started, doing4:34 okay, making progress, vigorously pursuing, put down a number. Third, some of you are, I just can't, am I really a 3 or is it a 4? Just okay.4:46 Third is schedule. Determining specifically how and when I will place the important and eternal in my daily life. Things like, you know, where and how4:58 am I going to put time with God in my daily life? Where and how in the important relationships that I have responsibility and I want to develop, whether it's my kids or mentoring or a roommate? You know, where and5:10 how specifically are you gonna put in your schedule becoming the person, the being that you know God wants you to? Where are you at on that? Next is discipline. Doing what needs to be5:22 done when it needs to be done. Choosing to habitually delay gratification of short term pleasure in order to more fully enjoy long term success. How are you doing there? Final 1 is5:34 accountability, enlisting the support of those who love me to help me keep my commitments to God. Is there some people that you're enlisting or you're already doing that?5:46 Where are you at on that? 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Write it up. You got it? Good. Now, I want you to do something that might be crazy, is put a line under that, and I5:58 want you to add up those numbers. Just add them up real quickly. Okay? There's, you know, there's only 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, it can't be that hard. Just add them up. Some6:10 of you thought I was kidding about pop quiz, I wasn't. We're about a little over halfway through this series together, and so I thought we'd do a little evaluation. If you added6:21 those up, and if you were your total score was between a 5 and a 10, you have heard but not acted at all. If your score is between6:33 11 and a 15, you begin to take some initial steps toward what God wants you to be in, balancing your life and biblical priorities. If your score is between a 156:45 or a 20, your life is actually changing. It may not be as much as you would like, but your life is changing. And if you scored between a 20 and a 25, this message6:57 is for you. I mean you are vigorously, intensely pursuing, I want to be this kind of person, and my priorities and my discipline, my schedule and accountability. If you're between a 20 or7:09 a 25, I think God will have a special word for all of us, but especially for you. If some of you have struggled with, kinda keeping your commitments in the past, you know that last teaching we7:21 did on accountability I think will really help you. If however you find yourself being 1 of those people who say, you know something, I'm I am really7:32 trying to be all God wants me to be and I am pretty intense in pursuing him and yet I have these waves of guilt and I never know whether I'm doing enough7:44 and you know as I've processed some of this I'm trying to be real discerning, but I'm just not sure, then I think this message will be very helpful. We're gonna look at 2 warnings from Jesus.7:56 You'll notice even the title of this message is Personal Discipline Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. Warning, flashing lights, personal discipline. And we talked about how important it is that it's from the8:08 spirit of God that we need to be disciplined, right? Now it's time out, before you get too focused, too fired up, personal discipline can be hazardous to your spiritual health.8:20 There's 2 great dangers in becoming a highly focused, highly disciplined authentic follower of Christ. Danger number 1 is the danger of distortion. Jesus8:32 warns that we can easily distort the purpose of spiritual activities. He was up on a mountain, had prayed all8:44 night according to Luke 6, and He knew that He was gonna turn over the ministry to a select group of men, not a group of men that most of us would have chosen. Most of them blue collar workers, exception of maybe8:56 1. 1 was a former revolutionary, a couple guys with anger management issues, 1 a strong leader with a very big mouth, 1 a betrayer, 1 a crook.9:09 And, he goes up into the mountain and it's very clear the parallel. He's going to, even as Moses was the great Old Testament hero, and as Moses laid out God's economy for the children of9:20 Israel from the mountain, now Jesus, the rabbi, the teacher, goes up into the mountain and he prays, and we will hear what's commonly called the Sermon on the Mount, but what he's talking to is to9:32 his disciples, and the crowd is overhearing. And as the text opens up, it says he sits down, which was when a rabbi was speaking authoritatively, he would sit down and say, this is the9:44 way it is. You'll notice that you have in your notes Matthew chapter 5, and then in your notes you also see a structure or overview of Matthew chapter 5.9:56 The context is verses 1 and 2. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up into the mountainside and he sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them, saying Obviously in our time together I can't10:08 go through all of this in much detail, but I want you to see the structure. Verses 3 through 12, he's going to say the reward and the character of true followers look like this.10:20 And then in verses 13 through 16, he's going to say when that kind of character is lived out by the grace of God in relationship with him, you are literally the salt and the light10:32 of the world. He's saying be worthy examples. And then after that, then he's gonna have to tie it in because they spent all their time as little boys in the synagogue listening to the Pharisees teach,10:44 and Moses is the great teacher. And so now he needs to say, what am I saying and how does that tie in to what you've always heard? And what they've always heard is not only the Old Testament10:56 teaching, but there's the Mishnah, and that was a oral tradition that, you know, I think someone has said there's about 6 14 or 13 commands in the Old Testament, clear commands. Well, add 2 or 3 more11:08 thousand that came out of this oral teaching. I mean, they had commands about how many steps you could take on the Sabbath, about this, about I mean, every detail of life. A Pharisee would fast11:19 twice a week. They would tithe on their money, and Jesus would even say later, you know, down to the kind of the herbs and spices, they were legalistic down to the minutiae.11:31 And so Jesus is gonna I mean, he is declaring himself and his message and his followers, and then he's gonna say, Where do I and my teaching fit with what11:43 you've heard all your life with Moses? And he's gonna make a very radical statement in verse 20, and he's gonna talk about true righteousness. So have you got the structure? So with that, just listen. Let's listen11:55 first to the reward and character of his followers. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the12:07 meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure12:19 in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,12:31 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In fact, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you falsely and say all kind of evil things against you because of12:43 me. You see the role he's taking. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the12:55 prophets who were before you. And so he gives a character quality, the poor in spirit, someone who sees their need before God and then he gives the reward. The character quality of the reward, the character quality of13:06 the reward, he says, this is an authentic follower of mine. And then he goes from that to impact. What's the role? How do you live? You are, he doesn't13:17 say become, he doesn't say do, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything13:30 except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its13:41 stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and praise your father who is in heaven.13:53 And in their minds when he said good works, the good works that would immediately come to their mind would be the good works of the Pharisees. I mean all the good works, all the duties, all14:05 the rules, all the stuff. And so he begins to build the structure first of the reward and character, then be worthy of examples, and now we're gonna get to the part where you're gonna14:17 really get in trouble if you're the Messiah. He says, do not think, because who are you? Are you the 1? Shall we expect another? Even John the Baptist was asking. He's14:29 teacher like no 1 else, he speaks with authority, the lame walk, the blind see, the dead are raised, he feeds 5000. I mean, so where do you fit in the economy of God?14:41 And he's gonna just lay it out. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth14:53 disappear, not the smallest letter or the least stroke of the pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks the least of these15:05 commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands did you notice the emphasis?15:17 Practices and teaches. What's his problem with the Pharisees? What's his problem with the religious culture? It's duplicity. It's the problem we have today. Everyone says I'm born15:29 again. Everyone says I love Jesus. We just don't live that way. Anyone who practices and teaches these commands would be called great in the kingdom of God, for I tell you, and this15:41 is the 1 where I mean their jaws dropped, I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly15:53 not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now can you imagine hearing this sermon, and to get into that part and going, are you kidding? I mean, these guys are squeaky16:04 clean, squeaky clean, squeaky clean. I mean, they have these things on their head and it goes down their robes in the hundreds or thousands of verses that they've memorized. They pray at certain times.16:16 They give their money. They fast twice a week. I mean, if righteousness is doing the right things, I mean, these guys, and now this new messiah tells me unless16:28 my righteousness exceeds theirs, I can't even get in. Right about now I'm thinking, there's no hope for me. And then Jesus16:39 begins to, make the distinction between external righteousness activities, spiritual activities, good activities, doing the right things however for the16:51 wrong reason. It's a very silly illustration but it helps me. Can you imagine if someone, maybe it took many many yearsThe Heart of True Righteousness 17:03 and by just great fortune they were able to build, I mean the house of their dreams. And, after the house was done, you know, they needed, there was a17:15 little brook and so they needed to build a small little bridge and then a driveway to get into it and then they invite you over and the last thing they worked on was the driveway and there's different17:27 kinds of stone and you know the little white fence and landscaping and they bring you over and they say, Look at this, can you believe this driveway? Look at this driveway. You know where we got these stones? Look at17:38 this driveway, look at this driveway. And for like 2 hours they describe the driveway, the driveway, the driveway, the driveway. And then afterwards they say, Well it's been really great to have you here, I'll see you17:47 later. What's the purpose of a driveway? To get to the house. It's only a means. What Jesus was saying and what17:59 he's going to teach is the practices of good works and religious activities are merely the driveway. True righteousness is always a matter of the18:11 heart.18:12 You're listening to Living on the Edge. Chip will be back in just a minute to finish today's talk. But quickly, I wanna remind you that this program is only possible because of the generosity of listeners like you.18:24 So if you'd like to support us, go to living on the edge dot org. That's living on the edge dot o r g. And thanks for doing whatever God leads you to do. Well, let's rejoin Chip now for the18:36 remainder of his message.18:38 True righteousness is always an issue of relationship, not performance. What he was saying to them is your righteousness needs to exceed that of the Pharisees because they've got all the external18:50 religious activity, but their hearts, remember what he'd say? Your lips profess this, but your hearts are far from me. They weren't poor in spirit, they didn't see their need, they weren't merciful,19:03 they weren't pure in heart, they weren't seeing God, they weren't being persecuted, they were persecuting Him. All the things about the character, did you notice that every single thing of those be19:15 attitudes, they were be not do attitudes. There were issues of who you are inside, who you are that only God can see, who you are when no one's looking, what's your19:27 motives? What matters? Jesus says genuine righteousness is always a matter of the heart. And then we're gonna pick it up and notice in your notes it says true19:39 righteousness, and then he's gonna take their oral commands, and he's gonna This phrase is gonna be repeated and he's gonna apply it in under You know he's gonna apply it to murder and adultery and divorce and oaths and19:51 retribution and enemies, but he's gonna say, You have heard it said, and what he's gonna say is, Here's the external righteousness that you've been taught since you were little boys and little girls. But I20:03 say to you, behind that external thing, this is the spirit, this is God's heart, this is what he was always after. The Pharisees,20:15 each 1 is gonna You have heard it said, the focus is external. Jesus will say, No, no, the focus should be internal. The Pharisees, it was always about doing. Jesus was saying, no, no, no, no. It's really about being.20:27 The Pharisees were pounding people and making people greater sinners than themselves. It was about duty, duty, duty. Jesus said they missed it. It's about devotion. The Pharisees would say it's20:38 performance. Are you doing this? Are you doing that? Are you doing this? Jesus said performance, no 1 can be justified by the law. It's about, your relationship. On the Pharisees' side,20:50 they manipulated and controlled people with guilt. Jesus said, I want you to introduce you to grace. They were focused on the letter of the law. Jesus said, no, no, it's not the letter,21:02 it's the spirit of the law. The letter kills, the spirit gives life. Finally, Jesus said, They've got it all in their head. I want you to know21:14 that I'm looking for the pure in heart. And so He applies it. And so, you know, we can't go into it in great detail, but let me give you a taste, okay? Let's just, let's go through how He applied21:26 it. So He starts with murder, Now remember, the context is your righteousness, if you were listening to the sermon by Jesus, it needs to be exceeding that of the21:38 most religious, squeaky clean, got it together, disciplined folks that you could ever imagine. And so he starts, he said, you have heard it said21:51 to the people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will22:03 be subject to judgment. Again I say, if anyone says to his brother Raqa, his answer will to the Sanhedrin, but anyone says to his brother, you fool is in danger of the fire of hell.22:15 Therefore I say to you, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar and go be reconciled to your brother, then come and present22:25 your offering. And then he goes on and talks about settling matters. The command was about don't commit murder. What's behind murder? Murder is the last thing you do when you have relational conflict22:37 that's unresolved. And where does it start? It starts with anger. It's when I'm angry, I mean people don't like have casually wonderful feelings and say hey, I think I'll kill you today. I22:49 mean it starts with a resentment and there's anger or a hurt or injustice and the anger builds and it ends up in the action of murder. And so Jesus says, what's behind that is some23:01 relational issues. And he's talking about the value of human relationships. And so he he he takes it from murder to saying, we don't have time to explain what he meant23:13 there, but you fool. Very strong word in that culture. And then he goes, wait a second. In fact, if you don't have something right with a brother, hey, don't don't come here and give your offering with God. This stuff23:24 that you've observed most of your life where there's hatred and the breakdown of relationships, and yet people do their profundity religion, he says that's you've missed the heart of God. Make things right with God.23:36 And did you notice he didn't say, if you blew it. If you are aware that there's a problem with your brother, it may be his problem, it may be your problem, may be 5023:48 50, might be 90 10, might be 99 percent them, 1 percent you. He says, if you come before the altar and there remember your brother has something against you. What's his point?24:01 Relational reconciliation and human relationships are the heart of that command. Well, he applies it to the next area, and he's gonna instead of talking about murder, he's gonna talk about the sanctity of24:12 sex. He says, you've heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I say to you, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it24:24 out. It's better for you to have lose 1 eye than to, from your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell, and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. A hyperbole here. He's he's making a metaphor24:37 to to say the gravity of what you need to do, but what's his point? You know, they got to the point where, hey, you know, did you commit adultery or not? Is it legal? I'll tell you what, Moses gave a certificate of24:48 divorce, and at this point there were 2 schools of thought, but basically the average guy could say, you know what, she doesn't look very pretty anymore, I don't want her anymore. A woman had 0 rights. You're out, I'll24:58 get a new 1. And Jesus said, wait a second. It's it's not just the external behavior. I'm telling you that when your loyalty moves25:10 from the fidelity of an covenant marriage to even mentally going to another person before God, you've already missed. In fact, if if you have a problem,25:22 be as drastic as you need to be. I mean, if you gouge your right eye out men, how many of us could just lust with 1 eye? I could. Right? I could be a left eye luster.25:35 Right? Or if I cut off 1 hand, I You know what he's saying? He's saying in a figure of speech, be as drastic as you need to be to deal with the issue of the sanctity of25:47 sexuality. He goes to the next area which is, having to do with divorce. He says, it's been said among you that if anyone divorces his wife, he must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell25:59 you, if anyone divorces his wife except for marital infidelity, I've just created a new word I think, causes her to become an adulteress, and again, it's the26:10 sanctity of the family. It's not just the legality, it's the covenant. It's what you committed to, it's the relationship. He skips down to oaths. Again, I say you've heard it26:22 said, from people long ago. Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths that you have made to the Lord. But I say to you, don't swear at all, either by heaven, for that is26:34 God's throne, or the earth, for it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great God. And don't swear by your head, for you can't make even 1 hair be white or black. Simply let your26:46 yes be yes and your no be no, anything beyond that comes from e from the evil 1. And this was a time when they would do business deals, they wouldn't have a lot of written contracts. I swear by this and I swear by that26:58 and I swear by this, I swear by that, it had this whole system of swears. And Jesus said, you know what, here's the deal, like just try integrity. If you27:10 say yes, I'll do it, you do it. If you say no, just mean it. Stop playing these games and negotiating and trying to attempt to work around, kind of27:21 religious loopholes. Be men and women of integrity from the heart. And then he gets to retribution and you know that classic eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, but I say to you, do not27:33 resist evil person, or resist till someone strikes you, and by the way the striking here on the right cheek, most people are right handed, this is more of the offense, it's the27:45 slapping, and then he says if someone asks you to go 1 mile, the Roman soldiers by law could come to anyone and say, you carry this for a mile. You carry my equipment for a mile. And basically27:57 what he says is you know you know your pride and your rights and when you get offended, well they did that to me, I'm gonna do that to him. He said, you know something, I wanna let's let's there's some law, how about28:09 grace? How about we show the world how different and wonderful God is? Let's give people what they don't deserve. So a Roman soldier says, okay, I command you now in the name of the emperor and the Roman government, you28:19 must carry my equipment by law for 1 mile. And then they had markers, there's a mile. And you look up and say, hey, do you mind if I go 1 more?28:31 And that soldier goes, what? Says, that's a kingdom citizen. You see the heart? See the difference? Then finally, he said, you have heard it28:43 said, love your neighbor and hate your enemies, but I tell you, love your enemies, and then listen to this, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father28:55 in heaven. And the idea of sons, especially in Hebrew culture, it has family likeness is the idea. You'll be like your father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, he sends rain on the righteous29:06 and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, duh, you know, what reward is that? I mean, don't tax collectors and sinners do that? And so he he makes this29:18 point. He says, I want you to demonstrate to the Romans mercy, I mean grace. And then now he says, what do you do to your enemies? You don't give them what they deserve.29:30 Grace is giving people something they don't deserve, mercy is withholding what people do deserve. And so when your enemies do he says, I want you to withhold what you would more29:43 normally give them, and I want you to overcome evil with good. You'll never be more like your heavenly father than when you love people who have29:54 wounded and hurt and abused and betrayed you.30:02 This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part 1 of Chip's message, warning, personal discipline can be hazardous to your health from our series, balancing life's demands.30:13 Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. Are you overwhelmed by the pressure to do more, have more, and achieve more? In this 10 part series, Chip provides practical,30:25 biblical steps to help you move your life from chaos to contentment. Discover how to align your priorities around god's vision for your life and the discipline to not only put first things first,30:37 but keep them there. You're not gonna wanna miss a single program of this series. Well, Chip's here in studio with me now to share a quick word with all of you. Chip?30:47 Thanks, Dave. I wanna share an important request with you. If Living on the Edge is ministering to you, would you consider returning the favor? If you've been listening but haven't yet become a financial partner with30:59 Living on the Edge, would you prayerfully consider sending a gift today? And if you've given but could do it monthly, I can't tell you. It would make a huge difference. If we all pitched in, it31:10 would just make an incredible difference in terms of what we can do here to reach and care for more people. So thanks so much for all that you do, and thanks for just praying and doing whatever God shows you to31:22 do, and we will receive it with great gratitude.31:25 Thanks, Jeff. It takes a team to do what God's called us to do, so we invite you to join us as we encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Send in your gift or learn how to become a monthly31:37 partner by going to living on the edge dot org or calling triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3. That's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3, or visit31:49 living on the edge dot o r g. App listeners tap donate. Well, here again is Chip to share some application for what we heard today.31:58 You know, Jesus shocked the people he was talking to when he told them what it looked like to be an authentic follower of Christ. When he framed the world from, you have heard it32:10 said, and all those external righteousness and discipline and performance and religiosity, he threw out the window. His surgeon's skill went to the very heart of the matter. It's32:22 about something inside that God is looking for. And as he walked through these various issues of murder and adultery and divorce and and oaths and retribution, and then he gets to this 1 about enemies.32:35 And I gotta tell you, I can only imagine sitting in the crowd, someone shaking their head saying, you don't understand. You certainly don't mean I'm to forgive that person and release that person32:47 who's hurt me. I mean, they're my enemy. I mean, think of what they've done to me in the past. And yet, they hear his voice, and he says to them, just like he's saying to us, If32:58 you're thinking of that ex mate, if you're thinking of that ex boss, if you're thinking of the child who's betrayed you, or the parent that abused you, or the person that ripped you off financially33:10 who said they were a Christian. What he's saying is you need to be set free. I want you to forgive your enemy. I want you to release them. I want you to learn in my power to love33:22 them. And you may just say, God, I just can't or I don't know how. What I want you to know first is you need to make the decision, Lord, I'm33:34 willing. I want to do what you want me to do, but I don't know how. And second, I would say that as you pray that earnestly and sincerely, there's a place that we can take you to get some help. I did an33:46 entire message that will teach you very specifically how to overcome the evil that's aimed at you. It's the Apostle Paul taking this very core text, and he explains in detail what33:57 to do and how to do it. And I want you to know that as you take by faith the steps that God will show you, you will be free because good is more powerful than evil.34:10 Thanks, Chip. And the teaching he just mentioned, how to overcome the evil aimed at you, is the last message in our popular series, true spirituality. Go to special offers at living on the edge34:22 dot org or the Chip Ingram app to listen to that specific program or the entire teaching from Romans chapter 12. Again, visit special offers at living on the edge dot o r g or the Chip34:33 Ingram app to learn more. Well, thanks for listening to this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Next time, we'll continue Chip's series balancing life's demands. I'm Dave Drewey, and I hope you'll join34:45 us then.In this video 0:00 The Pop Quiz of Spiritual Priorities16:52 The Heart of True Righteousness
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