It has been said that we can live a few weeks without food, a few days without water, but only a few minutes without hope. We all have something or someone that sustains us and gives us hope.
Here's my question. Where's your hope? We're going to talk today about a hope that can never let you down.
Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are an international teaching and discipleship ministry that motivates Christians to live like Christians. And in just a minute, we'll continue our series, I Choose Joy, based in Philippians Chapter 1. Last time, Chip shared the story of a close friend who faced unimaginable adversities, yet through everything he experienced, his faith in God empowered him to endure anyway. In this program, Chip builds off that inspiring testimony by highlighting the three ways God delivered people throughout the Bible and how those truths apply to us today. So grab your Bible and notes as we join Chip for part two of his message, Understanding the Power of Hope. Deliverance number one, he delivers us out of the adversity or the difficulty. Number two is he delivers us through them.
Jot down 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, verses 9 and 10. This is what Paul is experiencing. He tells us that he had this amazing experience and so that he wouldn't get proud, he was given a thorn in his flesh. Everyone postulates and guesses, is it malaria?
Is it an eye disease? We don't know what it is, but all we know is that there was a bad back situation that he was struggling with and he was in pain all the time. And God did not, and he prayed. I mean, Paul's got a pretty effective prayer life, wouldn't you agree? And he asked God, in faith, believing, take it away, take it away, take it away. And God said, no, no, no.
My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. And then Paul's attitude changed and realized sometimes God wants to do a deeper thing in us and he doesn't deliver us out of it, he delivers us through it and as he delivers us through it, he refines us and our faith grows and our character changes and it's very difficult and he gives us a joy and a contentment and a peace that's unexplainable externally apart from a living God doing something inside of you. The third way that God delivers us is unto himself. We were talking about this as pastors, we were going over the study earlier, and one of the guys in the group said, you know what's kind of odd? Is that in our day, we think the worst thing that could ever happen to a person is they die.
And that doesn't seem to be Paul's perspective. Christ gets exalted, whether I live or whether I die, and a little bit later we're going to read that he's not sure whether he's going to stick around or die, but the dilemma, he thinks it's far better to be with Christ. I've had both my parents die of debilitating, painful, long diseases. When my parents died, by the time they got to where they died, it was, Lord, thank you.
To watch them live through what they were living through at that level was really, really painful. And Psalm 116 says, precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of his godly ones. You see, if all there is is now, temporal, and someone you love dies, I got news, you got nothing.
You got nothing. But if in fact there is an eternity, if there really is a heaven, if what Jesus told the disciples the very last night that allowed them to hang tough and hang on no matter what, there's an eternity, there's a heaven, that it's real, then it's pretty interesting. It sustains you. And it's sad and it's hard and we lose those that we love and that's why sharing Christ is so important. That's why if you're here or you're watching or you're listening and you've never put your faith in Christ, you need to know that you're going to be in heaven.
And that's not something from trying to be a nice little good person or being a bit moral. Your sins have got to be completely covered. You have to receive the gift of Christ dying on the cross for you in your place and turn from your sin, repent, and ask Christ to forgive you and come into your life. And he will. And you can know for sure. The first reason Paul has joy in the midst of these horrendous circumstances, his deliverance is certain. And he's certain that by the grace of God, he is going to be faithful. He is certain that he's going to be bold in his faith right until the end and he's certain that whether he lives and gets to go on and minister more or whether he dies and is immediately ushered into the presence of Christ, that he knows that's his hope. But the next reason is equally powerful. The second reason that he has this joy is his source of joy is unshakable.
It's unshakable. Circumstances go up, they go down. Incomes go up, incomes go down. Hurricanes come, hurricanes go, earthquakes come, earthquakes go.
Economies go up, economies go down. Marriages are good, marriages aren't so good. Kids do great things that make you proud. Kids do some terrible things that make you sad.
You're healthy and working out and doing a triathlon this year and next year they got a biopsy report and they got tubes running in you. Circumstances up, circumstances down. You either live your life like a little quirk on the waves of circumstances of the sea of life or you live your life with that leaning eagerly expectation and anchor of your soul hope that there's a heaven and there's a God and there are promises and he will sustain me and as I trust him and that's what Paul does. His joy, the source of it, is unshakable.
He says, for me to live is Christ, temporal, eternal. To die is gain. If I'm to live on in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose?
I don't know. I'm torn between the two. I'm hard pressed from both directions. Having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better, yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary for your sakes. And then he kind of comes to this moment and convinced of this as the Spirit of God is speaking to me, as I'm writing this letter, as I'm processing, he says, I know that this will turn out, that I'll remain and continue with you all.
Why? For your progress and, is this guy like crazy? Who's he concerned about? Your joy in the faith so that your proud confidence in me can abound in Christ through my coming to you again. For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul lives, there's two platforms in life. You look at life from this platform of time, or you look at life at this platform from eternity. And he says in time, it's Christ, and if it's Christ, I'm going to continue to serve, because unlike American Christianity, he thinks the goal of life is to love God and to serve him and to know him and to enjoy him and to share that with as many people as you can before you die and to model the kind of life for you and your friends or if you're married your children so that the most important thing is not what school you go to, not how much money you make, not what you look like, what other people think, but the most important thing is that Christ is the center of your heart and life and you are actually reflecting what he's like.
It's called his glory. Everybody and everything revolves around something. It's interesting, you know, take a microscope and write, you know, you've got the center of the nucleus and those electrons are going around it and now they've got super powerful ones and there's stuff inside of that, things going around or, you know, all the planets go around the sun.
They found now that our solar system and our sun actually goes around an axel star. Everything in life goes around something. The question is, what does your life go around? Paul said, my life goes around the living Christ.
He's my anchor. And so if I live, it's for him. And if I die, it's gain. I'm immediately translated into the presence of Christ. No soul sleep, no purgatory, no waiting. I die instantaneously. I'm in the presence of Christ. And then he begins to think and ponder about, wow, what should I do?
I'm hard pressed from both directions. He desires to part and be with Christ. I don't think many of us would say that if we're just honest, right? See, I don't think Christianity was a religion for Paul. I don't think it was a moral statement.
I don't think it was I want to do really good in this life and it has a lot of good byproducts and produces good things and it's important. I think Christianity for Paul was a life transforming moment of a relationship connected to God. And he loved God and he got to know, even though he never met, I mean, we have some visions that he has, but he didn't meet him face to face as far as we know. But the Spirit of God living in him, just like he lives in us who are followers, he cultivated that and he cultivated it by, he took that Old Testament and God revealed to him and this is his word and he cultivated a tenderness to hear the Spirit of God and follow it and he was always living in community. In other words, it was his relationship and he thought, you know, I have this, I've got this barrier still.
I still have this barrier. I've tasted and I've seen and he's changed me and he's revealed things, but I have this barrier. It would be better to be face to face. But his heart is one of, I want to do whatever you want me to do. And these Philippians, they could use some good teaching still.
They're still messed up. You know, these two ladies are arguing with each other and under pressure they're not doing so well. In fact, I'm going to write them pretty soon about humility and loving each other because they're kind of at each other's throats. So Lord, plan A, I'll be with you. Awesome. Plan B, I'll stay here as long as you want.
I think God must want me to stay. Notice the secret is his vantage point. I looked this up in the dictionary and I loved it. A vantage is a position or situation more advantageous than opponents. That's one definition, but I think the second one has much more application for us. A position that allows a clear, broad view, understanding, a vantage point. In other words, what you need to understand, it's not just where's your hope, but it's from where are you looking for your hope?
You're listening to Living on the Edge. We'll return you to Chip's message in just a minute. But first let me tell you, God is doing incredible work through this ministry all around the world. And if you'd like to join us, consider partnering with us during our mid-year match. Every gift we receive until midnight on June 30th will be doubled dollar for dollar.
Join us today by going to livingontheedge.org, or by calling 888-333-6003. We appreciate your generosity. Well, with that, here again is Chip. Paul had been beaten at least three times, left for dead once, overnight in the ocean, been in prison, deeply discouraged. I'm not reading into the text. If you read 2 Corinthians pretty carefully and look at Acts, he's probably clinically depressed at one point, just is almost at the end of his rope. And his words, knock down but not out. And then he says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, because I think this is the greatest thing that we need out of this passage in our life is not to lose heart. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we notice perspective words now, look and see. While we look not at the things which are seen, but we look at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. But there's a couple of questions we need to answer as we close. Where's your hope? See, ask yourself what really gets you discouraged.
Ask yourself when you're frustrated and when you're angry and when you're mad. Is your hope in a perfect marriage? Is your hope in upward mobility? Is your hope in what school your kids get in or how they're doing in their grades?
Is your hope in your body and how you look? Come on, this is just us in here. Don't look at me like that.
Come on now. We all, here's the thing, God loves us so much, he's saying, don't be stupid. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, America, the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. It's not that money's bad. It's not that success is bad, but they make really bad gods. They make great idols.
And what idols do is destroy idol worshipers. So the question for every believer in this room is what's my life really going around, not what I say it's going around or not what I think it's going around. And if you want to know, just go home and check your finances and then go check where you go on the internet and then go check where your time goes and check who are your closest friends and what do you talk about. And you'll know exactly what your life is going around. You can sing I love Jesus and come to church and try and be a good person and your life really go around a married person, your kids, your work, your money, your future and your stuff.
And we all do it. So God brought us here together on this day to repent of that. For some of you, he brought you today to give you the biggest gift you'll ever receive in your life, eternal life. You don't have an eternal hope. Well, you've got temporal stuff and you might be successful, you might even be moral.
But I'll tell you what, add cancer and a week to live, you better have what's on the other side of this wall. And so he just brought you here to say it's really not that complicated. Yes, you lose control to an all-knowing, all-powerful, good God who so demonstrated his love. He died in your place, rose from the dead and for 2,000 years has been transforming the world and now he wants to transform you. Father, thank you for how good and how kind.
Thank you that you love us. God, I thank you that as hard as life has been and as many mistakes as I have made, I've just seen thousands upon thousands upon thousands and myself included experience a hope that no difficulty or tragedy or challenge can change. And so I want to pray now for those that would say, you know, I'm not sure whether I have eternal life. And if that's you, I would like you to bow your heart, your eyes are already closed, but bow your heart and be as honest as you can be and say, Almighty God, I'm the God of my life and I'm running my life and I repent. I ask you now to forgive me of all my sins, past, present and future.
I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, he died for my sins and rose from the dead. I accept that gift and ask you to come into my life right now and then give me the courage to tell someone this very day, Lord, help me to understand your word as you start to speak to me and God, would you please provide a community of friends to help me grow? And if you're a follower and you realize some of those idols have crept in, would you just tell God, no more, I need a hope that won't change.
I need a future that's secure. And then would you covenant with God to tell at least one person before the sun goes down on this day, this is a baby step I'm taking to make Jesus the center of what my whole life goes around. And you probably need some help to get there. Before we go any further today, I want to pause and give you the opportunity that I gave the people in our church when I taught this. Maybe the Spirit of God is speaking to you and there's a real battle going on in your heart right now. And you're saying, oh God, what would this look like in my life today if I put all my hope in you? You know, I travel a lot and I get to meet people and I am both surprised, amazed and so deeply encouraged by how many people will tell me, you know, I was driving in my car and just pushing some buttons and you came on and as I listened, God spoke to me and it was in my car that I actually paused and recognized for the first time that I needed Jesus, that I needed forgiveness, that I needed a hope that would never go away. And I actually in that moment paused, I stopped and I confessed my sin and in the name of the Lord Jesus, I asked him to forgive me. If you have never done that, today is the day of salvation. God is speaking to you.
He knows all about your life, all about your struggles, all about your fears, all about the things that you're ashamed of that are in your past. And he's saying to you, come unto me. I want to forgive you. I came for you.
I lived a perfect life. I died in your place upon the cross to take all of the sins that you've committed and place them on me. But you need to receive this as a free gift by faith.
And so if you want to do that in your heart of hearts, you can speak to God. Oh God, today I believe Jesus died in my place to pay for my sin. And I'm asking you to come into my life and forgive me, to make me your son, to make me your daughter. I believe that you paid for my sin on the cross and you rose from the dead to prove that it's true. I want to follow you with all my heart and with all my strength.
Please give me your power. And I want you to know that the God who created all that there is cares for you. And at this moment, the biggest and most important thing you can do is to share that with the best Christian you know.
The scripture says that believing in our heart and professing with our mouth, we are saved. He wants to love you and help you and encourage you. You need to find a great Bible teaching church this weekend and then come to us at livingontheedge.org. That's livingontheedge.org. And we have some free resources to help you begin to grow in your brand new relationship with the God who loves you.
Thanks, Chip. Well, if you prayed to receive Christ, we do have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was created specifically for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingontheedge.org, then clicking 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 still with me in studio, and Chip, you know, many of our listeners are familiar with our discipleship work here in the U.S., but Living on the Edge also is a really prominent presence all over the world. Would you take a minute and tell us a bit more about that?
I'm thrilled to, Dave. In the book of Acts, Jesus commissioned those early disciples and us. He said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the world. And what has happened, especially in the last five to seven years to Living on the Edge, is a global movement. It's been amazing to be able to, I think we've now trained about 330,000 pastors and leaders in multiple countries around the world.
That little book, The Art of Survival, it's been translated in 28 languages, and God is using it and passing it all around as people struggle with the challenges and the difficulties that's coming at them. In fact, one of the most encouraging things globally to me is our outreach in the Middle East. We have a partnership with all the Protestant churches in Egypt, a new partnership out of the Gulf States, and believe this, 479 Muslim background believers have come to know Jesus personally through our outreaches there.
And this isn't like a click on the internet. We had over a million visitors in just a couple months to our, the real God in Arabic. And out of that came people that were searching, that led to conversations, that led to private meetings, that led to 479 Muslims trusting Jesus for their salvation. If you have a heart for the world, if you want to be a part of the Great Commission, what I can tell you is we are seeing God work in and through Living on the Edge in ways that we never dreamed. But as he opens all these doors, the need for prayer support and the need for financial assistance is bigger than ever before. Jesus is on the move. Here's my request.
Are you willing to join him? Well, if you'd like to help us share the good news with unbelievers and disciple Christians all over the globe, now's the time to partner with us. Up until midnight on June 30th, every gift we receive will be doubled dollar for dollar. To give toward our mid-year match, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners tap donate, and thanks in advance for doing whatever God leads you to do. Well, as we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of our teaching, let me encourage you to download the message notes.
This helpful tool is available for every program. They include a clear outline, all the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. You can get them at LivingOnTheEdge.org under the broadcasts tab. App listeners tap fill-in notes. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
