Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. In times and circumstances that are overwhelming, and everything in you wants to give up or to give in. Your number one need. is perspective. Perspective is the antidote to discouragement.
How do you get perspective? That's today. Don't miss it. Ever feel like giving up? Like the challenges are too great and the darkness too deep?
Well, you're not alone. Pastors deal with discouragement too. And as a pastor, Chip Ingram understands firsthand what it's like when nothing seems to work, when prayers feel unanswered, circumstances grow worse, and hope feels distant. But whether or not you're a church leader, we all face dark days that tempt us to throw in the towel.
Well today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram reveals God's prescription for rising above our challenges through faith, hope, and faith. hope and love. Before we get started, remember that Living on the Edge has just started one of the largest match opportunities in our 30-year history. Later in the program, Chip will describe how you can multiply by two the size of your year-end gift. But right now, let's get started with the message from Chip Ingram, a theology to believe.
God's going to take His word today and He's going to speak to that very specific discouragement in your life. and in mine. Discouragement is the number one destroyer of God's plans for our lives. Just before we receive God's highest and best. Many of us throw in the towel.
You know, I've had some times and I've counseled so many hundreds of people right before God is at work. And, you know, the habit, the addiction, the struggle that. It has just been a stronghold in your life. God is working, working, working, working. And just before He answers and delivers.
So many people give up.
Now what I want to do is I want to develop three very practical, specific principles to help you slay the dragon of discouragement. Or as I like to say, hanging tough. in tough times demand first that we get God's perspective on our circumstances. How do you do that? by looking at our circumstances through the eyes of faith.
That's exactly what he calls us to do. Look at your current circumstance. Member. What is it that's discouraging you? What is it that's difficult and painful right now that you just think, I can't take it, I can't take it?
Look at it through the eyes of faith. What is it that God's going to do because You're trusting what you can't see. You're trusting his promises. You're trusting his character. How do you do that exactly?
Well You need to understand. that the Lord has you in a position to develop a work in you. that's primary and even more important than the work through you.
So don't get discouraged. Just by faith. I mean, remember I wrote for 20 months. There's a passage in Psalm 25 that God gave me that said, Chip, I will instruct you in the way in which you should go. And for 20 months, I'm going, Lord, and you know what He gave me?
Here's what you do today. Here's what you do today. Here's what you do today. I kept saying, what about six months? What about six years?
What about ten years? Lord, I have visionary gift. I need to know where I'm supposed to go. And what he said is, I'll show you what you need to do today. And I'll give you grace to do it today.
And what I didn't realize I had no idea that God's purposes for my family, my marriage, my children, my grandchildren, and the ministry. They were going to expand and expand and expand. And when God's going to do something wide through you, He first has to do something deep in you. And when God wants to do something deep in you, He has to remove the pillars and the dependency. Of your arrogance and your pride and your trust in people and wanting the affirmation of others, and he will strip you in ways for your good because you're so precious.
But it's painful.
So in your discouragement, can you say? If it looks like I have little, you should boast in your high position because you are dependent. And I would love to say, I would love to say it, and after 35 years as a pastor, I would love to tell you this is true, but it's not. I would love to say that when things are going well and when they're easy and when all the relationships are good and circumstances are wonderful and we have lots of money, that we just trust God, that we go to deep levels with the Lord. The fact of the matter is All of us.
All of us have to have seasons where God takes the things that we trust in. and he sets them aside.
So the We have him. Just him. And God's doing that right now. He's doing it in the world. He's shaking people.
He's shaking communities. He's shaking the church. He's shaking the world. The question is will we listen? Will we humble ourselves and be dependent?
So, the first thing we need to do is look at our circumstances through the lens of faith. The second thing we need to do is get God's perspective on our future. And how? By looking at our future through the lens of hope. See, Our hope, if it's in the now, if it's in what I can see, if it's in the ministry, if it's how people are responding to me, if it's in my bank account.
If it's in things going well or not going well, my circumstance. What do we learn? It goes up. And it goes down. He says you need to take what you're experiencing right now.
whatever is discouraging you and he goes I want to give you another new set of glasses after the glasses of faith you set those down and now you put on the glasses of hope Listen to what the Apostle Paul said. Therefore we do not lose heart. though outwardly we are wasting away. Yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day. for the light and momentary troubles.
are achieving for us an eternal weight that outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes on not what is seen, But what is unseen? For what is seen is temporal. And what is unseen is eternal. He tells him, I'm telling you this after I've been shipwrecked. I've been beaten about three times.
I've been left in the sea. I mean He is viewing all of his temporal difficulty pain, circumstances through a lens of Hope. and what God is preparing for him, not just now, but for ever. The third thing that we need to do is get God's perspective on our circumstances, God's perspective on our future, and now God's perspective on our motivation. by looking at our motivation through the lens of love.
Here's the question. And this is different for all of us. And this is very personal, so I want you to lean back. I want you to really think for a moment before you would immediately answer. Am I willing to enter into the fellowship of his suffering?
Are you willing like the Apostle John and the Apostle Peter. to consider it a privilege and a joy, to suffer for the sake of Christ. You see In the early church. as they were beaten and taken in by the Sanhedrin, and they went back there in Acts chapter 2 and 3 and 4 and told the other believers what happened. They were filled with joy, being counted worthy to suffer.
for the Lord. It's out of loyalty. The Apostle Paul would say, I want the fellowship of his suffering. There's something about a love for the Lord Jesus that when you are suffering because you refuse to give up, refuse to give in, that is very, very precious. And what I would have to admit to you is that sometimes when I've worked hard, I've tried hard, I've prayed hard, I've ministered hard.
And circumstances don't get better, and I don't feel better, and candidly, I'm not very happy, and I wish God would change things and change them faster. What I have to admit privately Is that my motivation is really about God working my life out? instead of me being willing to experience whatever, I need to experience for me to express my love to him. I remember A number of years ago, uh Teaching a seminar. It was in Hong Kong at the time and was meeting with a group of pastors.
And that evening, I had dinner with a pastor who happened to be a house church leader and evangelist. And he was. Telling the story, and we had helped him with some resources and helped him with what he was doing in terms of discipleship. And as he was traveling doing evangelism, the church was meeting in his house and the Communist Party came. It was a remote area.
And his wife said, no, no, I'm the pastor. I'm the pastor. None of these people are here. And she got all the people to leave and they took her down to the police station and for two days they beat her to a pulp. And he came back from his evangelistic trip and found what was happening.
And I'm listening to the story, and in my mind's eye, thinking about my wife. And as he's telling the story, I'm just thinking, boy, if someone did that to my wife, I don't know if I could keep my faith. Boy, I would just, and I'm having all these emotions and anger and retribution. And he finishes the story, and when he gets done with the story, very calmly, He looks at me and my friend. And he says Can you imagine that God would count us worthy to get to suffer for Him?
And I I was too embarrassed to say the emotions and the thoughts that I had. But I want to ask you that. These are the times that we're living in. Is our love going to be loyal? As we wrap things up, let me help you evaluate kind of a little bit where you are.
And to remind you that you can slay. the dragon of discouragement. You are not a victim. Victims have self-pity. Victims look through the lens of me.
Victims look at are things going well? Survivors don't. Survivors have an attitude, and we count it all joy, whether we feel like it or not. Survivors don't know what to do, but we have God's wisdom and we'll take it one day at a time. and survivors get a divine perspective, a theology, a way of thinking about life and circumstances and the future and our relationship with the Lord in terms of motivation.
And because of that, here's the deal. You can overcome discouragement, but you have to fight.
So can I ask you? Remember when we began this teaching time, I said, What person? What circumstance? What specific thing was really discouraging you? And I ask you to get it really clear in your mind.
Before I go on and give you some practical tools, Where are you struggling? From what I've shared so far, what is God saying to you today. What does it look like for you to look at life? your life. Your sadness, your disappointment, your challenge.
Your heartache. through the lens of faith. through the lens of hope. Through the lens of love. We'll hear more from Chip Ingram's message in just a moment.
First, we're inviting you to multiply your year-end donation through an exciting match that's active right now. You know, when you give to Living on the Edge, you're not just supporting one ministry, you're creating a ripple effect. you begin to mobilize people who help other people, who help other people, and that makes a huge difference. Your gift to the match will make an impact. Picture these scenes.
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From his series called The Art of Survival in an Age of Chaos, Chippingram is teaching from James chapter 1. Let me give you a couple handles that I think will help. Uh number one. Reevaluate your circumstances and here's the test. Is my faith in things that are perishable?
or in things that are permanent. Just pause for a moment. Your faith. What are you trusting in? Are you trusting in things that are perishable?
or things that are permanent. I remember again in China. speaking to a pastor lamb of many years ago. And he was beaten and tortured, and the church grew. And so they put him in prison, and the church grew even more.
And so he got out of prison after many years and he had almost like a tree house, I remember, and he had speakers and just hundreds of people would gather to hear him preach and proclaim God's word. And the officials came at that time and said, we are going to kill you. And he smiled at them. He said, you torture me, the church grows. You put me in prison, the church grows bigger.
You kill me, the church will explode. Do you hear it? His faith isn't in what was perishable. His faith is in what's permanent. I was talking to one of our partners who does ministry in the Middle East and They were growing in their faith and as they were ready to go back into their country.
One of the ladies said to the trainer, Before we go back into our country, Would you teach us to die well? She understood what they were going to do and what they were going to share, in all probability, is going to cost them their life. They wanted to die well. I sat across the table from A young doctor who had a contract on her life. She was in Yemen, and the church has exploded in the midst of that civil war.
she was making her way to another country to be safe. And she was young, maybe thirty, thirty one and She just looked at me and goes, I know I won't live very long. And she didn't say it with any sense of self-pity. It was a sense of This is my calling in life. There is more to life than right now.
My question is, do you believe that? Does your behavior, does my behavior declare that? For those of us in sort of the first world, I have a very good friend who's gone broke a couple times and made a lot of money, I guess probably three times now. And um over time he has come to actually believe and understand that Money can't make you, money can't break you. He's looking at life through the lens of faith.
Seconds to reevaluate where your focus is. The test here is my hope determined by the size of my problems or the certainty of God's promises? I mean, is your hope all the promises are, you know, those problems are getting smaller. Or is it these big promises of God? Where is your hope focused?
Um the Apostle Paul uh writing to the Romans. And they have their share of struggles. The Roman Empire is persecuting Christians. And he says to them, For everything that was written in the past, the Old Testament, instructs us. or teaches us that through, listen carefully, endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.
so that with one heart and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he quotes a number of Old Testament passages, about four or five, about the inclusion of the Gentiles. And then he ends with verse 13 of chapter 15, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. In our dependency, I'm going to challenge you. One of the things that God wants to do is break down some of our preconceived ideas and our focus.
For them it was Jew or Gentile. For some of us it's black and white. For others it's different tribes. For some of you in different countries, though you love Jesus, there is this division, there is this prejudice. God wants to take us to this place of dependency.
that brings about unity. He says he gives encouragement and he gives what? Endurance how? through the scriptures. Here's the question.
Where is your mind going? Does your mind focus on the problem, the problem, the problem, the problem? Or are you focused on the promises, the promises, the promises? You know, as I shared before, one of the reasons I memorize scripture, one of the reasons I renew my mind, one of the reasons I sing and worship out loud is I want to fill my mind and my heart with the truth and the promises of God so I can look at the very challenging. and discouraging circumstances.
in a fresh way. God's way. is its perspective. Finally, We re-evaluate. Our motivation.
And the test is. is your primary motivation and the motivation of your heart to love Christ. or simply experience relief. and get what you want for you. This is a hard one to be honest with, but as I shared.
I think the brothers and sisters that I've met around the world have taught me more about a pure love than anybody else in the world. because there is very little hope for any financial gain or fame or life getting better. They do what they do, they experience what they experience. and you all suffer what you suffer. Because you love the Lord Jesus.
As I close, when you start to get discouraged, are you ready? I just want you to remember three words. That's all you need. Three words. As you struggle, the art of survival.
Word number one is faith. God is in control. Word number two is hope. You are His child. He has a place, a plan, and a promise for you.
And the last word is love. Suffering. is a chance and a privilege. for you and for me. to express our love.
for the Lord Jesus. Father, these are words of hope. and life. But we confess in our humanity in our fallenness. that they're very challenging words to apply.
Lord, thank you for your word that gives us encouragement. Lord, thank you for Paul and Peter and John. Lord, thank you for people in our life. the heroes of to day that blazed the trail. that love you that live by faith, that focus on what's unseen rather than what's seen.
And Lord Jesus, may we be those kind of people. Thank you that we are not victims, that we're more than conquerors in Christ. Will you fill us? with perspective and wisdom and hope. And will you grant us the ability to fight the good fight?
to finish the race. to do all that you've called us to do. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.
Let's keep pressing ahead.
Well, please don't rush away. Chip Ingram, our Bible teacher, has prepared personal comments just for our Living on the Edge family. And that's coming up in just a moment. But first, I'll remind you that Living on the Edge is the recipient of a generous match, one of the largest in our 30-year history, meaning that every dollar that's given right now has twice the value and twice the impact. This is especially important because of our commitment to equipping and encouraging pastors.
You see, when you help the shepherd of a local congregation, your gift is multiplied through the people he impacts. The church is growing rapidly in other parts of the world. God is moving. To address the needs of this exciting growth, our ministry has expanded into 28 countries where churches are teeming with new believers who want to learn more about the Bible. Churches are desperately in need of pastors in order to provide leadership for new believers.
Well, Living on the Edge comes alongside these ambitious men of God, and they crave direction and reassurance. In fact, when Chip's teaching series, The Art of Survival, was recorded on video, it spread like wildfire in parts of the world we never dreamed of. breaching. But God had other plans. Chip?
As you listen to the series, The Art of Survival. You may not be aware of how it was birthed. how God's used it. And I hope it's been a great encouragement to you. But I will tell you, pastors are called to equip the saints.
But the question is: who equips or pastors or loves the pastor? Right toward the end of COVID. God had this message birthed in response to body bags coming out of Egypt, of what was happening in rural communities as churches were shut down. And literally, one day I filmed it, it was dubbed a week later in Arabic, and then like a fire that went across the world in 35 languages, hundreds of thousands of pastors, and they heard what you've been hearing the last few days. And then we had them get in small groups to process it.
And at the end, the most common thing we heard was: God spoke, I'm not going to quit the ministry now. And what I want you to know is I know you have hard times and challenging times, but your pastor lives a life that you can't imagine what he's going through. And when you give to this match, you're helping pastors all across the United States and all across the world. Would you be willing to like radically give up something that's common, a few cups of coffee, a few luxuries here or there, and make a commitment to this match to help us help pastors here and all around the world? They're lonely, it's difficult, it's hard, and by the grace of God Living on the Edge is giving them hope.
And you can be a part of that. Yes, you can be part of this movement of God by going to livingontheedge. org. On our mobile app just click on the heart icon and follow the simple instructions. Or you can call right now, triple eight three three three six zero zero three.
Together, let's make an impact on pastures here at home and around the world by giving generously to the match that's active through the deadline on December 31st. Because of the match, every dollar you give is automatically doubled in size, having twice the impact. To send your donation in the mail, address your envelope to LivingOnTheEdge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024.
Now you might think your donation will make little difference.
Well, I can assure you, every single dollar will be channeled into God's work to help pastors and all Christians discover how to walk more intentionally with Jesus. Again, write to PO Box3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. You can also call 888-333-6003 or visit livingontheedge.org.
Well, I'm Dave Druley. Join us when Chip Ingram begins our next series, Discover How to Leave a Legacy That Lasts Forever. Tuesday on Living on the Edge.
