Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Do you have a big decision that you need to make? You've talked to friends, you've gotten counsel, you've maybe even read a book. You've figured out the pros and cons, but you still can't hear God's voice. You're not quite sure.
If that's you, stay with me. Today's message is going to help. You have a mission. It's not optional and it doesn't require a seminary degree. I'm Dave Druy, and today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues the first message of his series, The Jesus Revolution.
In Acts chapter 1, Jesus laid out a clear agenda for his followers: what it looks like for ordinary people to ride the unstoppable wave of God's grace in the 21st century. And going hand in hand with today's themes, a little later in today's program we'll tell you about a brand new opportunity that just launched this month, our exciting mid-year match. Details on that just ahead. But now here's Chip with our message titled The Call to All. What I want you to get in your mind is that From the very first moment when God clothed our parents, He began this unstoppable wave of grace.
Because God promised. He promised from the very first time in Genesis 3, through multiple prophets and multiple times, that one day a Messiah, a Savior, a deliverer would come. And that the tsunami of grace would be clear and vivid, and that God would live among us, and He would love us, and His life would demonstrate the Father's heart. Full of truth and grace, and then his death would actually pay for once and for all the sins of all people of all time. And that tsunami grace was offered to the nation of Israel, and they rejected their own Messiah.
And Jesus died, and then he rose three days later, and having paid for the all sin of all men of all time, and conquering death, and conquering Satan. He starts a new wave of grace called the church, a supernatural community where. The living Christ who walked on the earth in his physical body would now, God the Holy Spirit would come and live inside his followers who trust him. And that tsunami wall of grace would rise higher and higher and forcefully move. And Jesus would say, the gates of hell could not and will not prevail.
against his church. And where is church? The founder of the church is Jesus, and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the story of our founder, Jesus. And the book of Acts is a story of his followers. And if you open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1.
We're going to go on a journey together. The author is Luke. He's a researcher. Luke and Acts are almost like a documentary. And he does all the research and he's writing, many people believe, to a person of great influence, Theopolis.
And at the very end of Luke chapter 24, Jesus opens the mind of his disciples to understand the scriptures, and then he gives them this assignment. He says, this message of the kingdom of God of repentance will be preached through every nation in the earth, and I will empower you, and you'll be my messengers. You'll be the unstoppable tsunami force of my grace and love to go to all the earth and let them know there's hope. There's deliverance in me. And then In Acts, he continues his documentary.
And so what you do is you look through a lens and you say in Acts chapter 1, we have Jesus giving his agenda for the planet to the very first followers of Christ. This is exactly what you're to do now. The question then is, how do you take what are the principles from Acts chapter 1 to what is Jesus' words to us, his body, now, the 21st century? And I'd like to suggest there's four very clear applications to what Jesus wants, this unstoppable tsunami wave of grace to build up in and through us and to go out from us. Four things.
Number one, we are to be confident in Jesus' presence and purpose. Here's the principle. The principle from the very words of Jesus, His kingdom will come and His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Now you know that great movement of God from Genesis chapter 3 that went through the Old Testament and there were prophets in the Old Testament and then Jesus comes and there's a supernatural birth and there's a resurrection. And then this movement of the early church. I want you to know this tsunami wave of grace, it's going to happen and he's going to return. And you either jump on and ride that wave of grace and be a part of God's kingdom agenda, or you're a spectator. And you watch it go by.
And the enemy of your soul will lure you into thinking that there's security in a 401k, or if you can get into that school, or have that girlfriend, or that boyfriend, if your kids turn out like this, and seduce you into all kinds of things that may be good things as a byproduct. But they're not the unstoppable agenda. And he calls you and he calls me to ride the wave. to get on what God is doing. Because it's gonna happen.
It's a done deal. The score, you may not know all the plays, the score is final. And God wants you to know His kingdom will come. And the key word is faith. His key word is, will you believe me?
And so we need to be confident. We need to ride the wave. You need to begin to live in such a way where you expect God to do supernatural things. You expect him to open the hearts of people you work with. You expect him to provide your needs in ways you didn't understand.
You expect that things you think could never change in your marriage actually can. And then you begin to step out and take steps of faith. And you know what? God will honor that. He's pleased to.
Without faith, it's impossible to please him. But boy, those who do. When we take tiny steps, Our Father's heart rejoices and He's there to help. The second Part of God's agenda for 21st century Christians is to be clear on your calling. What are we called to do?
The principle here is that every believer is a full-time missionary, bearing witness to Jesus' supernatural life in them. Acts 1:8 is as true for us today as it was for them. You have received power. The Holy Spirit is in you. And the issue isn't: are you going to, quote, witness for him?
You are a witness if you're part of his family and all of us. And we have good days and bad days, but we're either a dynamic positive witness or a bad witness. There's people that meet me or meet you or see me relate to other people, and they come to conclusions about Jesus, the church, grace, and life when they look at me. And when they look at you. Of course, my prayer is that The great majority of that time it'll be positive.
But there's a whole world out there. They just think Christians are nuts. They just think we're narrow. prejudiced, bigoted. Unkind, uncaring.
Racist. And you know why? Because a lot of people who name the name of Christ are like that. And the breakthrough will come. When legitimate followers of Christ Christ like you and me.
when Christians live like Christians. But you're a missionary. You know, what he had to help them understand back then was: it's not about your political national interest. And that's true for us. There's a global agenda.
And there's lots of good causes. There's this cause, and there's lots of good causes that can get us off track. We have spent decades attacking rotten fruit. The rotten fruit of that in our society, the rotten fruit of that in our society, the rotten fruit of that in society, and the rotten fruit of that society. Jesus says, I want to go to the root, not the fruit.
When when people's hearts get changed, Communities change. And the laws may change, the laws may not change. But the supernatural work of the tsunami, grace of God, didn't come politically and it didn't come legislatively. I think I just made up a new word. But it came because people's lives were changed.
Key word here is missional. We got to be a people. 24-7, I want to be a missionary in my home. I want to be a missionary in my neighborhood. I want to be a missionary where I work out.
I want to be a missionary 24-7, where people see. The love of Christ, the holiness of Christ. But you know what? You know what happens to churches? As soon as you get a little bit of success, we start thinking about how do we protect our stuff.
This group didn't have any buildings, didn't have any staff, didn't have any money, didn't have any DVDs, didn't have any satellites, and didn't have any Bibles. And it changed the world. Why? Because they were missional. They weren't trying to figure out what works for us, and if we had a little bit more of this, it'd be more comfortable.
They were saying, the risen Christ lives in me now through the Holy Spirit, and I'm on task. And I'm a part of the tsunami grace of redemption and reconciliation. And by the way, this doesn't mean that tomorrow you need to share the four laws of the bridge illustration. How about getting to know your neighbor's names? I mean, how about just inviting some people over and say, I'd love to hear your story.
How long you've been in the area? Just befriend people. Be nice to people at work. Get out of the cubby hole mentality. My world, my stuff, my pressure, my emails.
Be missional. Third, he says, be dependent on the Holy Spirit. I just want to remind you, we can't do this. I can't do it, you can't do it. And the principle here is, apart from him, you can do nothing.
Jesus, the last time, when they turned the Passover to the Lord's Supper for the very first time, He'd already washed their feet. And then He walks with them, and as He walks with them, they go to where He's going to pray, and this will be His last night. And as they go there, He begins to talk about Him being the true vine. And his father being the vine dresser. And about all that you men need to know, I've taught you a lot.
All you need to do is abide. You just need to be connected to me. And the way you're going to be connected to me is going to be in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's going to be in the context of my words. And if you will just stay connected to me, I'll produce the fruit through you.
Apart from me, this isn't about getting raw-rah. This isn't about your fleshly energy. Anything that you start in the flesh, you have to remain and sustain in the flesh. Anything that is launched in the spirit, Is maintained and sustained by the Spirit. This is about trusting God to do supernatural things in you and through you as you, before God in community, on mission, allow the Word of God by the Spirit of God to take birth in your heart and you take steps of faith and obedience.
Key word here is prayer. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our message in just a moment.
Well, something special is happening here in June at Living on the Edge. It's a powerful mid-year match. For a limited time, every gift to this ministry will be doubled in size, meaning twice the reach, twice the impact for every dollar given. You can learn more about it at livingonthege.org, and Chip will have more details after today's message.
Now let's get back to our lesson. Had a chance to speak at Liberty University last Friday. And a young 24, 25 year old who went to school there and now works in sort of the convocation department of you know, they have about 10,000 students that come in the basketball arena every Friday for devotions, actually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And had a chance to speak to those students, but you know, came in kind of late, and so we got to talk to this young gal. you know, within like It was about a fifty minute ride and Therese and I got out of the car and thought, Man, she is one godly, amazing young woman.
And you know how you meet someone and you think, this conversation went way deeper. than we should ever go in like 50 minutes. And then we got to know him just a little bit and we met her boyfriend and a little bit of their journey. And then, you know, we had a 50-minute ride back. And it got way, way deeper.
And I just thought, I mean, it was like, I know their vision is to have 85% of all their students graduate and go into, quote, the marketplace as representatives and ambassadors for Christ. I said, man, if they produce people like her, they are going to shake the world. And as we were going, she said, you know, I grew up in a good Christian home, and, you know, it was a different story. You know, I'm close with my dad. My mom and dad are still married.
I had devotions. I went to this Bible college, and, you know, it was pretty strict in some ways. But, you know, I got up every morning and I read the Bible. But she said, one day the president of our school did something that changed my life. I said, what's that?
He said, he held up this tiny little book. It was an old, old book by E.M. Bounds called The Power of Prayer. And he challenged us in chapel, if you will read this book and then pray 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at noon, and 10 minutes at night, just for six months, I'll give you this book. She said, I just felt like God prompted me.
So, you know, I went down and I picked up this book. And if you've ever read the book, I mean, it's like, whoo. I think it's a really powerful book on prayer, very challenging. And um And so she said, you know, I was reading my Bible. Candidly, I was a very good moral person.
She goes, I read that book on prayer and I began to see God's promises and to expect supernatural things. And you know, 10 minutes doesn't sound very long. But like for ten minutes deeply And then 10 minutes at noon, and then like 10 minutes at night, she goes, My life changed. My view of God changed. I saw God doing things I'd never seen before.
I came out of a good home, I'm in a Bible school, I was reading the Bible, but the power of God. The supernatural power of God and my view of Him and what He could do and what He wanted to do with me, it was revolutionized when I began to. Really pray. That's God's agenda for us in 21st century church. We need to be confident.
We need to be clear. And we need to be dependent. And probably the greatest evidence of my dependency and your dependency is the depth, extent. and even at time's length of your prayer life. If it's always on the run, And there's two kinds of prayer.
There's the the deep secret prayer. You know, I mean, you get in your room. You sit quietly before God. There's adoration, there's confession, there's thanksgiving, there's intercession for others. And then there's quiet listening.
Lord, what would you want to say to me? Do you want to give me direction? Do you want to convict me? Do you want to show me anything? And then there's the get-in-your-car, in meetings, traveling, talking with God throughout the day.
I'm talking about that first kind right now. How you doing with that? That becomes a part of the culture more and more and more and more and more and your personal culture. You'll see things happen that you think only happen to other people. Be confident.
Be clear. Be dependent, and finally be obedient. But not in general. Be obedient to today's truth. Did you notice those early disciples?
I love this. Peter didn't say, hey, Jesus said we're supposed to reach the world. Come on, guys, let's go for it. What did he say? What's the first truth?
You just go. and what we learned for about the next 10 days, and you just go pray. In fact, just wait. And why they're waiting. Peter says, Well, is there anything in our Bible?
He had the Old Testament. Is there anything in our Bible that we should be doing now?
Well, you know that passage in Psalm 69 is clear about The one who's going to betray, I never saw that before, but I'm sure glad you opened my mind to the scriptures, Lord. And then that passage in 109 that we're supposed to replace him. God's will today is to obey the next thing.
Now I say that because This is a confession, so please don't think too little of me. If I be just a bit honest here, there's times where God speaks very clearly to me about doing something. But I don't want to do it.
So I read two more chapters of the Bible. He speaks to me about doing something, and I don't want to do it, so I say to myself, you know, honey, we're giving to the church and faith promise and Living on the Edge. You know what, I think, why don't we just write a check here? He tells me something he wants me to do, and I think to myself, you know, I wonder, I'm going to text so-and-so and just encourage him. You know, hey, brother, how are you doing?
Just was thinking, and I'm up, I'll pray for him right now. And I really will. And I'm doing all these sort of things that are kind of good Christian sort of things that I know. But they're not the next thing. And sometimes we play games with God, and honestly, you know how you become a rigid, legalistic, uncaring, religious person that drifts far away from God and convinced that you're really close to Him?
Is when you haven't obeyed the next thing. Because your heart gets hard. And then you stuff all this religion in it. And then you play all these games. If God tells you to confront someone and you read more of the Bible, you sin.
So if God is telling you, you know what? You need, maybe there's someone that you realize they're drifting away from the Lord. I don't want to talk to him, God, you know, it might ruin the relationship. I don't know what to say. If he's telling you to talk to someone to confront them, do it.
If he's telling you today, you need to apologize to someone or forgive them, do it. Do it today. If he's saying, I want you to share the gospel. with a neighbor or co-worker. Then you know we've got a relationship.
I know just just do it. Get on your email and say, Could we have lunch? Can I buy you coffee? And then you open the question with: Has anyone ever shared with you how much God loves you and how to have a relationship with Him? And if He says, No, and I don't want to, you're off the hook.
But do it! God doesn't put those promptings in your heart unless he's been preparing someone. If God says to you, deal with the porn issue, get counseling, start getting your finances in order today, whatever it is, do it. Because if you don't do the next Step. Where he speaks, here's the principle.
Mark chapter 4. from the lips of Jesus. If you do not respond to the light or the truth God gives you, then he'll take away the truth that you have. If you respond to the light that he gives you, he'll give you more light. See, the organ of spiritual growth is not knowledge.
Here's the key word: the organ of spiritual growth is application. Jesus would say after his greatest sermon, Let me show you two kinds of people.
Some built on the rock, some built on the sand. It all looks the same. The activities are the same. There's one difference. This group applies it, this group doesn't.
What would happen? If every one of us, just in quietness before the Lord, said, would you just show me the next thing? By the way, that's why it's hard to pray. You know why it's hard to pray? Because when you get real quiet, It reveals your spiritual poverty and my spiritual poverty.
And what it reveals is that, in other words, if I get real quiet, I have this deep down sense that I'm going to hear something I don't want to hear. I don't want to apologize to my wife. I don't want to hear her go to counseling. I don't wanna s I don't wanna forgive my dad. He's a jerk.
Right? I don't want to get my finances in order. I know I got a lot of debt, but you know, gosh, it's going to be a pain. I have to own up to some stuff. I don't want to deal with my addiction.
But I'll tell you this. You take. The next. First step. And God will give grace, and God will bring people.
And you'll have freedom, and you'll have the truth, and the truth will set you free. And you know what? You'll experience something you never experienced. Guess what?
Now you're a witness. See, because when they took the early disciples and said, shut up, you can't talk about this anymore, they said, who should we obey, man or God? We can't stop talking. about this Jesus. Why?
Because they were experiencing him. You only experience him if you obey. The truth. for today. You've been listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, wrapping up the call to all.
Part of our current series called The Jesus Revolution. Stick around, Chip is going to tell us more about the mid-year match we mentioned before. And if you'd like to connect with our growing online community, find us on Facebook and Instagram at LivingOnTheEdge with Chip Ingram. And for the full uncut version of Chip's messages, subscribe to the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. Chip ended today by asking us to stop and do something uncomfortable.
Get quiet. Ask God what the next thing is, and then actually do it. Not read two more chapters, not write a check to something safer. The next thing it sounds simple, and it is until you sit down and try it. Because the moment you get quiet, God has a way of getting specific.
And specific obedience is where the revolution begins. And speaking of revolution, here's Chip to tell you what your support of Living on the Edge is actually building out there in the world. One of the most striking things about Acts chapter 2. Is that the early church didn't scatter after Pentecost? They gathered.
They shared meals. They prayed together. They held each other accountable. They were in each other's lives in a deep, daily, sacrificial way. And what was the result?
The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. If you're a part of a church community that loves and serves Jesus and others, you already know the power of believers doing life together. You know, a number of years ago, I think it was 2009, we were teaching all around the world and we just realized with the event of the internet that people could get teaching almost anywhere for free. And we took a huge step of faith and we started creating small group curriculum. And we launched it right on the broadcast.
And within a few years, literally, not 100, not 200, not 300, we launched about 400,000 groups in the next four or five years. And it got to the point where we didn't even count them anymore. And we had Barna do some research and found out there was like 9.8 people. I don't know what happened to that 0.8 person, but there were almost 10 people in every group. And we realized hearing God's Word is great, but when we could get people in a living room or an office or even in a Sunday school class in a small group studying God's Word, that's when the power and the change and the movement is what Jesus did.
And when you support Living on the Edge, you are helping communities of people study God's Word in small groups, not only here. but all around the world. If you're not in community, can I encourage you, start a group or get in a group. And whether you are or whether you're not, you can make that happen here and all around the world. Your gift this month.
will be doubled dollar for dollar, creating communities that exhibit love in such ways that lost people say, this Jesus really is the Savior of the world. What Chip just described, that's what your gift makes possible. When you give to this mid-year match, you're not just supporting a radio program, you're funding the kind of community Chip talked about today. Go online to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Every dollar you invest this month is matched dollar for dollar.
That means twice the groups, twice the lives, twice the impact for the same gift you are already considering. Again, just go online at livingonthege.org or call us at 888-333-6003 to give today.
Well, I'm Dave Druy.
Next time, Chip explores the birth of a movement. 120 people, 10 days of waiting. And then the world changed forever. Join us next time on Living on the Edge. Yeah.
Oh. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
