Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Do you ever wish you had more faith? Have there ever been times where you say to yourself, oh God, I just wish I could believe that you'll take care of me. I wish I could believe you're in control. I wish I could believe that you have my best in mind.
But help me in my unbelief. If you struggle with faith and want to learn how to get more, stay with me. God is scanning the earth right now looking for men and women whose hearts are completely His so he can work through them in extraordinary ways. Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues our series, You Were Made for More, with the third condition God is looking for, a radical step of faith. He takes us to Luke chapter 9 and shows us that the problem most believers have isn't a shortage of faith, it's an unclear view of Christ.
And when you see Jesus for who he really is, you can take steps of faith you never thought possible.
Now, here's Chip Ingram. Please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 9. We're going to look at some verses that as you look at them, Jesus is going to describe and teach specifically how you, an ordinary person, and me, ordinary person, can actually develop a radical faith. Are you in Luke 9? Let's go.
This is to all of his followers. Then he said to them, If anyone would come after me, He must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me in my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.
So, do you understand what Jesus is calling? This is the baseline for followers. If anyone will come after me, the word says that he must. I must deny myself. That means my life's not about me, my agenda, my future, everything I can do.
I need to take up my cross, it's an instrument of death. And I'm going to obey. And so there's the calling to a radical faith. What he's going to teach them is You don't need a lot of faith. What you need is to clarify the objective of your faith.
If you could ever see Jesus for who He is, how good, how kind, how powerful, how trustworthy, how loving, how much He wants for you, if you could ever see God for who He really is. You don't need hardly any faith. It'd be easy to do whatever he says.
So, what we're going to see is, he's going to take his three disciples who will have the primary leadership roles in the church after he leaves, and he's going to give them a private moment with him to clarify the object of their faith, who he really is. And then he's going to have a public moment where all the other disciples see, and those who've had this experience. And then I've got an illustration that'll bring it home. Pick it up with me in verse 28. Notice it says: about eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him, and he went up into a mountain to pray.
And as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving, Jesus, Peter said to him, Master, it's good for us to be here.
Let us put up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He didn't know what he was saying. I can identify with that. While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came from the cloud saying, This is my Son whom I've chosen.
Listen to him. What happened? It's near the end of his ministry. Why? Jesus knows they're going to have to believe.
And it's not about how much faith. It's the object of their faith. Do you understand what God's doing? He's letting these three guys see who Jesus is. and when you see who he really is, Then what we'll watch later is doing what he says isn't all that hard.
He's God.
Well, after they have this experience, they're going to go down the mountain. And as they go down the mountain, I want you to notice the author is letting us know these are connected. When the voice had spoken, they found Jesus alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and told no one at the time what they had seen. Then, notice the time marker again: the next day.
The next day, all this goes together. When they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him, and a man in the crowd called out, Teacher, I beg you, look at my son, for he's my only child. A spirit seizes him, and suddenly he screams and it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not. Why?
What's Jesus say? What's the text say? Look in your Bible. Oh, Unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, How long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son to me.
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at what? The greatness of God. And while everyone was marveling at what Jesus did, he said to his disciples: Listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you.
He's setting them up. Look, there's going to be challenges. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But they didn't understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so they didn't grasp it.
And they were afraid to ask him about it. He's preparing them for his leaving, and he's giving them promises. And how did he heal the boy? Did he touch you? What do you do?
Spoke. You can trust my word. There's power in my word.
Some of the other gospel writers give this account and say this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. It's not that there's some little magical thing that happens when you fast. When people fast, they say that spiritual food and attention with God is more important than my physical food. And as they fast, as they meet and spend extended time with God, it gets clarified who God really is. And that's how you trust Him.
You don't need a lot of faith. You need a crystal clear object of your faith. Let me give you an example.
Okay, let's pretend this is a bridge, okay? And from here over to there is a span. Let's make it 100 feet since it doesn't look that scary from here. And then you got to pretend. Will you guys pretend with me on this one?
Looking down, it's a thousand feet, and there's alligators in there and piranha. You'd probably die from the fall, but if you don't, they're gonna get you, all right? Here's how we tend to think about faith. We think about faith as, okay, there's a bridge that crosses it, and it's God's known will for you to cross the bridge. And we think there's only a few people, like a spiritual Indiana Jones, who can do it.
And we visualize this as sort of one of those rickety, you know, bridges like we've seen in the Indiana Jones, and it's made with vines. And, you know, about every third board is broken or looks old, but there's some, there's a few, there's the proud, there's people who have more faith than us. And they go, bum, bum, bum, and oh, and they almost fall, and then they make it through, and they go, and it's through. They're the awesome Christians who may think I could never be like that. And that's how we think about it.
I mean, it's Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon, and, you know, you name your spiritual hero. Nothing could be farther from what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is you're right here.
Okay. There's a thousand feet drop, and there's alligators, and there's real danger, and there's real cost, and there's piranha. And there's a bridge. You look at the bridge. You say to yourself, wow.
Those are three feet still girders. Uh Not only that, but this. This thing spans and... It's It's got concrete four feet wide. 12 feet wide, has railings on both sides.
Now is it a thousand foot drop? Yeah. Are there real alligators? Yeah. Would this bridge hold me?
My lands, this bridge would hold a truck. It's not a big deal to walk across this thing. God is going to ask some of you on this day. to take a radical step of faith.
Some of you are in relationships that you know are ungodly, but because of your security, you're afraid to break them off.
Some of you have addictions that are holding you up and people don't know about it or the people that you love do. and you're unwilling to come clean.
Some of you have been holding on to your future. A great many of you statistically are holding on to your money.
Some of you have had a dream in your heart about what God could really do through you, but I mean, the implications, the moment you get to that, you think, oh, that might mean. And you withdraw.
Now, I'm not telling you there aren't real alligators. I'm not telling you it might not be very fearful. And I'll probably guarantee it'll get more difficult before it gets better. But you can keep living the try hard, come to church, be religious. Ask God to make your life work out.
frustration life that is the average Christian experience all across America. Or you can join an army of real Christ followers. who have dislocated hearts, Broken spirits take radical steps of faith. And when God said Seize faith. supernatural power occurs.
And what we have in the church today is primarily what People who believe personally in Jesus, the great majority that I assume whose sins are actually forgiven and His Spirit actually lives in them, what we see is what they can do with their energy, their time, playing it safe, as long as God doesn't ask anything too big or too scary. And my experience is, is that Microsoft and HP and eBay take greater steps of faith. to build something for profit. than the average church. that has a bridge over troubled water named Jesus, who raised from the dead.
and dwells in you. And God called us together to become not a group of people that we measure by how many people show up. But by what kind of people leave with what kind of faith that are impacting our homes and our lives. And it's a journey and it's difficult, but it's in all that pain and struggle and difficulty. that you experience God.
Not hear about him, not try hard, experience things that you can't explain. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll have more in just a moment. Remember, the place to go for all of these daily messages is over on our website, livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library, along with even more content like Chip's free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app absolutely free through any app store on your smart device.
Now, let's continue with today's message from Chip Ingram.
Now, as the text goes on, you'll notice that. These disciples, you know, Peter, John, James, this is near the end of the ministry, they've left homes. They're being ridiculed. Jesus is a marked man. There's assassination plots.
This is not a safe person to hang around and follow. And so, I mean, they're in.
So Three things occur. One is an argument among them about who's the greatest. Second is they find out some other group that's using Jesus' name and doing ministry, and basically they say, Master, you know, have you heard about this? These other people are, you know, they're not even on our super-duper little team. No, you don't want them around.
And then the third thing that happens is they're on their way to Jerusalem and they need to go through Samaria. And the Samaritans in Jews had real conflict. John and James, who really now believe they've experienced great power, they say, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from the sky and take care of this village? Peter? Yeah.
Boom boom, you know, you know, I mean they're experiencing real supernatural power And the dangers when you get very, very committed to the Lord Jesus are three. One is comparison, and it's the misuse of position. At the heart of all walking with God is humility. You don't need to compare yourself with anyone and what they're doing, what God made them to do, what He's called them to do, or how He's using them. The second danger is exclusivity.
That's the misuse of privilege. You know, they're not in our group, they're not in our denomination, they're not our campus ministry, they don't look at everything just the way, you know, we're the ones that God's going to use. You would be surprised who God uses. that don't fit some of your categories. Who really love God and the truth of His Word?
And the third is zeal, the misuse of power. And so I just say that to some of you that you're sitting here today and you're thinking, I was just wondering when someone was going to say this in this church. Man, you know what? If people gave like I gave, if they served like I served, if they shared like I shared, why don't these other people get on board? I mean, it's a private thought, it's a judgmental thought.
And it produces An experience that when we meet you, if it bubbles up to the surface, that's not all that attractive. And it's that kind of conversation where you criticize other churches or other ministries. And it's that kind where God does some things and If you're not careful, you can get carried away with the experience. instead of with the Lord. And then I want to just let you read.
Follow along because he says there is a cost and we need to look at this before we close. And the cost, he says, is threefold. Verse 57, as they were walking along a road, a man said to him, I'll follow you. Remember, Jesus said, We start out with, follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross. This guy raises his hand, I'll follow you wherever you go.
And Jesus replied, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Translation? You can't hang on to stuff. You want to follow me? We travel light.
You can't hang on to stuff. Materialism. Locations I am your security. There is no other security but me. Anything I give you along the way, hold it loosely.
Enjoy it deeply. Share it lovingly.
Next man comes up and uh Jesus said to him, Follow me. But the man replied, Lord, first let me go bury my father. Jesus said, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. It's an interesting cultural issue I can't develop. It wasn't that he was being harsh with this man.
But what he was really saying is you can't hang on to people. There can't be any higher relationship than your relationship with Jesus. It can't be your wife, can't be your husband, can't be your kids, can't be your grandparents. God is gracious, He'll provide for those things. But we can't say to God, I'll do whatever you want inside this box.
Hadn't experienced a situation with someone that had great gift and great opportunity. And his wife said to me, Well, I can't live. more than thirty minutes from my kids.
Well, that's a real little box. I just wonder if being in the center of God's will. with him radically transforming your life might have a better impact and a deeper relationship on your kids. than telling God what he can and can't do. and how far or how close you got to be to them.
The third test, as we pick it up, is Jesus. Still another said, I'll follow you, Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family. And Jesus said, No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. And the cost here is you can't hang on to the past. I remember vividly when we stepped out and said, Okay, God, we're going to.
Take Living on the Edge to do teaching and discipleship, not the organizational side of life, not all the various other things, but that's going to be the focus. And it was like, whoa, but wait a second. And what we knew is in the first 30 days, if God didn't radically show up, we'd have $150,000 debt. because of some circumstances a bit beyond our control. and we were committed not to go into debt.
So what we knew was in 30 days, Living on the Edge would be over.
Well, doesn't God have the right? I mean, He starts things, can't He stop things?
Now, guess what? Didn't have any backers, no plan B. No deep pockets. Radical step of faith. And we focused on what God called us and made us to do.
And a fellow said to another fellow, who said to another fellow to other people I didn't meet, and they came up with about $500,000 to take to the listening audience who matched it by over $600,000. And God was our venture capitalist that relaunched the ministry. God can do whatever he wants. He can start it, he can stop it. But it's one thing to say a ministry is his.
It's one thing to say your family is his. It's one thing to say, oh God, my money is yours.
Well, when he taps you on the shoulder and says, I'd like to have it right now for a while. I'll never forget, Teresa said, You know, whatever God ever chooses to do. We will know. It had nothing to do with us. It's his.
It's a radical step of faith.
Now, was I afraid? Absolutely. slash terrified and I was thinking, you know, I'm going to need a job here. Not only did we Not having any money for the ministry go on is when I stepped out. You know, I used to have this job being the president of this thing.
It, you know, paid pretty good. Had a global platform and it wasn't like it was a lousy thing to do. It was really privileged. But it's obeying. See at the end of the day, that's Faith is a coin.
And when you flip the coin over, it says obey. And it's just trusting him to the point where you just do what he says. And there's a supernatural life awaiting you. The final point is that You can't walk on water unless you get out of the boat. And as you continue to read in chapter 10, what you'll find is.
Jesus, after this message, the crowd is bigger than the 12, and he sends 72 people two by two out to do what he asked them to do. And he gives them power to do it. And then he says, Don't take an extra bag, don't take an extra purse. In fact, he says, I want you to go with nothing. Why?
What's he teaching them? I want you to trust me. I want you to trust me. You go to a town, and if they're responsive, God will have someone there, and you stay with that one group. Don't do any jazzing around and having people comparing you.
I'll take care of you. Don't even take a purse, don't even take any money. And then in verse 17 of chapter 10, you might even scan down there. There, God does things beyond their wildest dreams. And the last verse is this picture.
of what happens. The 72 returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. And listen to this. This is my picture of what I would love Jesus to look down on us in the Bay Area. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Wouldn't it be great to see The intricacies and the evil of the Bay Area, and Jesus looked down on our little. Time together with other churches and Christians here and say, I see Satan falling. Like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample snakes and scorpions and to overcome the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.
However, do not rejoice that the Spirit submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. And then I love this. To me, this is where it's all at. At that time, Jesus. Full of joy.
Through the Holy Spirit said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned. and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Jesus is really happy. And he did it through very ordinary people like us.
What's it look like for you to take a radical step of faith? Is it becoming the man of your house spiritually? Is it giving God the first 20 or 30 minutes and saying, you know, I'm going to, we went through that Romans 12 thing, I did it for a while, but I'm going to meet with you. Is it launching a ministry? Is it going public and saying, you know, I've never been baptized, you know, I'm sort of a secret agent Christian?
Maybe if I'm going to give the first portion of my money I need to get in the game and trust God with my finances. Maybe if I'm gonna break up a relationship or an addiction. I I don't know what it is. But I'll tell you, there's a thick bridge that will hold you and love you and restore you. Because the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the whole earth.
And he's searching. for a man, for a woman, for a student. who would stand in the gap. Before him for the land. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled Practice a Radical Faith.
You can revisit or share today's lesson anytime at livingonthege.org. Chip made something clear today that's worth repeating. The size of your faith isn't the issue. It never has been. The real question is the object of your faith.
Because when you get a clear, honest look at who Jesus really is, how trustworthy, how powerful, how personally involved in your life, the bridge doesn't look so rickety anymore. And the step he's asking you to take starts to feel less like a leap into nothing and a lot more like the most obvious thing in the world. We're in a series from Chip called You Were Made for More: How to Discover God's Purpose for Your Life. And to complement this powerful study, we've built a free tool to help you go deeper. It's called The Real You, a short, thoughtful assessment that helps you understand the unique way God has wired you.
Take it free and get some insightful answers today at therealyou.org. This ministry exists to help people go from hearing truth to actually living it. And it only happens because people believe that kind of teaching is worth backing. If Living on the Edge has made a difference in your walk with God, would you give today? Visit livingontheedge.org.
You can also call us right now at 888-333-6003 or send your donation through the mail by writing to us at LivingOnTheEdge, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024.
Now, here's Chip Ingram to wrap up our message on radical faith.
So, how about you? What's it look like right now in your life? to step out of the boat and begin walking on water. Y you know what I mean. What area of your life do you know in your heart of hearts God wants you to step out.
Is it in your marriage? Is it in going public with your faith at work? Is it in a personal area that you heard or we talked about in the message today? What's it look like in your life to step out and walk by faith? Have you got it in your mind?
See, the goal of our time together isn't that you learn about faith, it's that you take one step. A specific step of trust, and then God, He's going to show up in your life.
Now, let me ask you a second question. What's the biggest barrier to you taking that step? What person, what fear, what financial issue, what's looming out there? that keeps you from doing what you know God wants you to do. Remember the words of Jesus.
You can't hang on to people. You can't hang on to things. You can't hang on to your past. the safest, best place in all the world. is to walk by faith.
Will you covenant with me right now to take a baby step of radical faith? and then say, oh God. Don't let me sink. and then watch him work. What separates the people who actually see God move from the ones who don't?
Well, it comes down to one thing, and you'll hear exactly what that is next time on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Yeah. Oh. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
