Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Would you call yourself a bold Christian? I mean someone who's winsome but out there and strong and people know you're a real follower of Jesus? If you struggle with that like I do, stay with me. We'll learn to be bold in Christ today.
The Apostle Paul was in chains when he wrote 2 Timothy. And rather than using his final letter to complain or protect himself, he used it to pass the baton. calling Timothy to courage, boldness, and faithfulness. Today, Chip Ingram brings that message home with the conclusion of his lesson titled, Be Bold, Don't Be Ashamed. I'm Dave Druy, and this is Living on the Edge.
Remember, you can revisit these messages anytime by going to livingontheedge.org.
Well now here's Chip Ingram with his Bible open to 2 Timothy chapter 1, starting in verse 6, where Paul is sharing some important challenges with young Timothy. Challenge number one. is to be bold. and fulfill your calling from verses 6 and 7. He says, notice, for this reason.
What reason? The reason of how much I love you, the reason for where I'm at, the reason for why we're here in God's calling, for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Why? For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. He's telling him, basically, Timothy, you've got what you need to make it.
Can I ask you something? Can you, in your mind's eye, go back and tell me, when were you most passionate about following Jesus Christ? Just when was it that, man, you know, I got to get up and I got to read. I got to share my faith. I got to care.
We got new neighbors coming in. This matters. It matters more than I could miss an SEC game, I could miss an NFL game, I could miss a sale. This is who and what really matters. When was that?
And if it's not right now. then here's the call. Fan it into flame. Just fan it into flame. God's not mad at you.
He wants to help you. He's saying, of course you have fear. That's why I gave you my spirit. It overcomes that. The principle: we must constantly remind one another of powerful experiences in our past.
and the power given to us by His Spirit. Sit around the table. When when family comes over. Just say, hey, what are the biggest miracles our families ever ever experienced? What are your biggest moments with God?
So you need to remember the God that answered those prayers. He's the same, right, today. Yesterday Forever. He's willing. He's open.
But we need to come with expectation. We need to come with a sense of he's real and vital and wants to work and wants to bless and wants to use us. And I think the first place to do that, the aside to parents, is let's make our kids and grandkids our number one group that we disciple. And I d and there's please, I mean, I I, you know, we're we live in the psychological world, so uh. What I mean by that is that what used to be biblical language has turned into therapeutic language.
People don't sin, they're sick. Right? You know. Or they have a syndrome or an ism. And hey, you know, I majored in psychology, undergraduate, and graduate work, so I understand it.
But here's what I'm saying is Sometimes we ought to use words like Sin And guilt. False guilt's bad. True guilt means the Holy Spirit is putting in finger something specific about my life, my mouth, my behavior, my attitude that's wrong. And the agenda is not to make me feel you know we're in a world where oh i don't want to make you feel bad at times guess what God wants you to feel bad. Feeling really bad about doing something bad, or thinking something bad, or saying something bad is called remorse.
And remorse leads to, wow, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry leads to repentance. Noia, change of mind, where you say, Oh Lord, do you understand all sin? It's not about the rules, it's about the relationship. Sin isn't fundamentally, you just cross this line.
Sin is, You hurt your savior. You hurt your wife. You let your heavenly Father down. You disappointed him. You know, it's when it's just like, well, I'll try not to do that anymore.
But that's That's behavioralism. That's moralism. Sin is, I missed the mark of loving and caring, and something came out of my mouth, and it's wrong in me. I need to own it. And when I come and I own it, and I ask God to forgive me, He forgives me and cleanses me of all my sin, and He fills my heart with peace.
We spend our energy trying to get rid of our guilt. If it's false guilt and family of origin, and go to a good therapist, a good Christian psychologist. Hey, been there, done that, we all need some of that. But a lot of life is like Why did you say that? That's a hateful thought.
That was bigoted. That was biased. That was insensitive. That was selfish. Those aren't psychological terms.
By the way, everything I just said, I'm sure I've done all those in the last 48 hours. And I'm pretty convinced most of you have. But as long as we don't kill someone, we think, I haven't sinned a whole lot. It would be interesting to go home and read your own Facebook and all the things you've posted and ask yourself: how happy is God with that? Because we're going to learn the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to others.
Oh. Challenge number two. is don't be ashamed of your Lord. Look at verses 8 through 12. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or me his prisoner.
But join with me in suffering for the gospel. How? In your own strength? No. According to the power of God.
Why? Who saved us and called us with a holy calling. Based on what? Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. which was granted to us in Christ Jesus, from all eternity, but now has been revealed.
By the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. And then notice what he accomplished, who abolished death. and brought life and immortality to light. How? through this sacred deposit called the gospel.
The good news The work of Jesus. And so Paul says, don't be ashamed of your Lord. Why? Because of he's called us, because of what he's done. How can you how can it's like someone, you know, you were you were in a $10 billion of debt, and you decided to kill yourself.
And so you're on the edge of the ledge, and Jesus runs over and says, I just paid your bill and I rescued you. And then you go to a business meeting, and well, I kind of want to introduce my friend Jesus, but I'm a little ashamed of him. No, he saved my life. He paid my $10 billion bill. I'm going to tell everybody about him.
If you don't keep remembering what Jesus has done for you, you'll be ashamed to them. And you'll care more about, in my case, what the person in the next seat on the airplane thinks. I'm thinking, this is ridiculous. And so I talk my way out of that. And then, by God's grace, I think, you know, I have a spirit that's going to be bold.
Okay, I'm going to open my lips, spirit. You need to get royal. And he does. And by the way, can I say too? Yes, help you guys out.
I chicken out sometimes just like you. I get intimidated by people just like you. But what I find is when I am aware. Of what I've been called to, what I've been saved from, what God has done, the purpose, and that He's brought life and immortality, and then He's actually entrusted me. I'm sitting next to this person.
He's actually entrusted me with the only answer to this man's spiritual cancer. It's the gospel of Christ. And you know, the one thing I would say too for some of you that are thinking, oh, I probably need to really get a lot bolder. All your fears about how people will react. I'm just telling you, I think a lot of it is simply the enemy.
Because I'm shocked at how open people are. We got a neighbor that when we moved in, they said, He's the bad neighbor. Boy, that's I thought, boy, that's not nice. No, no, he's the bad neighbor. And they told me all these stories.
Well, you know, that was like setting my wife on fire. We're gonna love the bad neighbor. And in the first couple years, He was the bad neighbor. I mean, you know, picky and this and that. I mean, and he alienated everyone.
And of course, he's married to the sweetest gal ever, you know, that we got to know. And He recently He got from the bad neighbor to the talking neighbor to the we. Have some you know he's Pretty reserved, you can't sort of get into his world much to Uh he has a disease, they don't know what's wrong, neighbor. who ask us for prayer neighbor. who thanks us for being around neighbor.
Who I have shared the gospel multiple times with him. And it's just, no, I got it. He tells about his denominational background, and you know, it was fire and brimstone, according to him. And if I walked into church, you know, it would cave in, and there's no hope for me. And, you know, I just keep giving him the gospel.
And for the first 10 years, can I tell you something? If I only had 10 years, I'd say the gospel doesn't work. Of course it works. But His need got him to where he was starting to think differently about life. And can I tell you some of your relatives?
Some of your neighbors?
Some of your friends?
Some of your adult kids.
Some of your grandkids who've told you that they've left the faith and on and on, if someone would sit down and listen and have a cup of coffee and ask them questions for an hour or more. and not try and preach at them, but really listen and care about them, they're hurting and they're afraid and their world's messed up. Don't be ashamed. of your Lord. Join me in suffering.
It's literally the idea of this word: enter in with me, let's lock arms and suffer together. It's like an invitation. The reason is To obey. To obey in light of what God has done for us. It's a beautiful, beautiful passage here.
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Now back to our message. Notice he says for which I was appointed a preacher. It would be, in some older translations, it's called a herald. And it would be like if there was a king or a queen, it's someone who officially would, you know, and make an announcement on the behalf of royalty. And Paul says All these things, don't be ashamed of our Lord.
God assigned me. To blow the trumpet and announce that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has come to this earth to save us. and to forgive us and to take us with him, to be with him forever. And not only was I a Preacher. But I was a Apostle, one who is sent.
and a teacher. And for this reason I suffer these things. But he says, I'm not ashamed.
Well, why, Paul? How come you're in a lot worse situation and you're not ashamed? He says, For I know. The word here is an experiential no. I know.
whom I've believed and I'm convinced that he is able to protect what I've entrusted to him. Until that day. My life and my suffering and my hurt and my doubt and my uncertainty. And just like He's asked me to be faithful, what He's entrusted to me. I can suffer because I know I am convinced.
That I have given to him, and he's able to protect that until. that final day. Challenge number three. To Timothy is don't be ashamed of his word. Verses 13 through 18.
Hold on to the example of sound words, or literally, it's the sound teaching. which you've heard from me, In the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Protect through the Holy Spirit. Who dwells in us this treasure, this deposit which has been entrusted to you? You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me.
Among whom are Phygelius and Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesophorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and he found me. The Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.
And so the command is: retain and guard the truth. Be loyal to Jesus, be loyal to his word. And there's certain things to be loyal to his word right now, just to be loyal to his word, to say, I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's not dissing anyone else. We live in a free country, and people can have whatever kind of relationships they want to have.
But as a follower of Jesus, To say that You can be characterized as a hater and a bigot. Say it kindly. Say it lovingly. Give the theological basis for it. It's the Christ in the church.
Marriage, by definition, has to have differences. It can't have sameness. It needs a male and a female. There needs to be a connection. There's multiple things to be true to God's word right now.
And please hear the context. It's historic. There's certain times where the churches come together. The Apostles' Creed. It's very broad, it's very clear.
And inside the Apostles' Creed, these things are true that we believe. Salvation by grace through faith. The Virgin Birth. The triunity of God. Deity of the Holy Spirit and the deity of Christ.
The return of Christ. I mean, there's certain the authority and veracity. and the inspiration of the Word of God makes you look in some educational circles like You know, you're just like three bricks short of a load. Your kids in secular universities now? are made to feel like they are anti-intellectual and If they don't believe certain things, that are now accepted as the truth.
And so my point is. Are you ready? I'm going to say this as nicely as I can. Didn't plan on saying it, but I'm going to say it as nice as I can. Could we as the church stop whining?
and stop complaining and stop blaming and equip our kids so that they have answers for those kind of things and have the kind of relationship with them and model the kind of things where they would say, you know, the people that are saying this and that, their life is a train wreck. And you know, grandma or grandpa, you know, you seem to be a little old-fashioned. You're into that whole Bible stuff, but you know, like you got so many years together and you really love each other and you're really nice to me, and your life is the kind of person I'd like to be. Guess what? It's called discipleship.
That's what we can do. But don't hang back. Don't believe the lies that your adult kids or your teenagers or your grandkids don't want to hear from you. My son planted a church, he's about 10 years old. And when pastors are going through rough stuff, you go help your son.
And so he was really tired and asked me if I'd fill in. I did a little four-part series for him. And I did something really basic, and then I hung around and talked with him. And I was like, oh, I so want to help these young people.
So I said, honey, what do you think if, like, I'm going to, in the message, there was two services, if I would say, anyone, you know, I taught, this is what a Christian is. And I talked about being a Romans 12 Christian. Just a profile of a disciple from Paul. And just real simple, I said, if you would like to explore what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, why don't you come to my house for the next three weeks, next three Sunday nights? And I said, honey, you think we could see this trip?
I don't even know how many people. Is it gonna be five people? Is it gonna be 50 people?
Okay, can I invite them? She said yes. And so I did. And I didn't know. And so we had like 13 people show up.
And all young people except two or three. I can't tell you. I mean, the first three talked about their church background, deconstruction, where they're living in. I thought I believed all these things. I'm not sure about this.
I'm not sure about that.
Next week, next week. honest conversation, very small teaching, open, vulnerable. In the first week, one lady made a lordship decision. In the first week, another lady came to Christ. The two or three gals that were doing the deconstruction had never had a safe place.
You know what they needed? They needed some old white guy and his wife who love each other. to open their home. And explained lovingly the most basic things in Scripture that most of you could do off the back of your hand. And then the three weeks got done, and I mean, people shared at such a level, and the third week I said, you know.
No one has to, because I didn't know where they were coming from. But let's, Teresa, why don't you start? And I'll pray at the end. If anyone, if you'd like to pray.
Well, they pour out their heart. And then pretty soon, Chip, can I meet with you?
So I'm meeting with this guy. And then, Teresa, can I meet with you? And here's, you know what I want to tell you? Oh my gosh, these young people are so hurting. And their first thing is that it's all about this, what about that?
And they say this, and evolution, that, and this is that. And you know what they need? They need someone to love them.
Well, well the three weeks got over and everyone go, do we have to quit? And I thought, well, what do you want to do?
So Teresa goes, why don't y'all come and we'll eat at our house? And she, you know, we had a cookout. And then they brought their mates or friends and I've never seen Two of them broke up with people that they were involved in that were unbelievable. I mean, bang, bang, bang, bang. They have just responded to God's word and made application, and their lives are radically changing.
And we cry and hug one another. I didn't know these people eight weeks ago. Paul says to Timothy, I love you, I'm for you, I care for you. Timothy, I want you to know that you got everything that you need, but your part, you got to fan into flame. You got to get passionate like in the early days, get super clear.
And then can I tell you, don't you dare be ashamed of your Lord. Don't you dare be ashamed of his word. And you know what? Can I invite you into something? I like to invite you to suffer with me.
Would you go arm in arm? As I go out, can we just, you know, realize They're going to call the play. They're going to give you the ball. You're going to grab the ball and you're going to tuck it. You're going to get break through the line.
You're going to go about eight yards, and a linebacker who's been waiting you in a free safety is going to knock your head off. They do it on purpose and pay them a lot of money to do that. And you know, spiritually that's what God wants you to do. He goes, man, I got angels blocking. I got people prepared.
You got the ball of the gospel. I want to give it to you and I want you to break through and I want you to get some yards for the kingdom and I want to invite you to know that guess what? There's some spiritual linebackers. They're going to say this or post that or say that or that, and you know what? You may find them asking you about Would you pray for this kidney problem that they can't figure out what's going on?
And I'm really afraid. I'm afraid to die. And they don't have to respond great. Because that's not your responsibility. You can't change them anyway.
Right? Outcomes are gods. But would you be Bold. Don't Be ashamed. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the conclusion of a message called Be Bold, Don't Be Ashamed, from his series, You Can Make Disciples: Personal Coaching from the Apostle Paul.
We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment, so stay with us. You know every message in this series is on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe so you can have it with you all week. And if you want the complete unedited sermon experience, the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast has you covered. Find it wherever you listen.
Chip challenged us today not just to believe the right things, but to actually live them out in front of the people around us. That's the question at the heart of his book, Yes, You Really Can Change not just what you know, but whether what you know is actually changing you. It's a practical, Scripture grounded look at the process of real transformation, written for anyone who genuinely wants their faith to show up in their life. Plus we're including a second copy with every order right now, one to keep, one to give to a friend to share in the journey. As we continue this series on discipleship, we want to help you invest in the faith walk of others around you.
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Well, now let me hand things over to Chip for a final word. Thanks, Dave. As we close today's program, I want to ask you A question, something I want you to ponder on today. If you are the greatest Christian that some people will ever meet, in your neighborhood, or at the coffee shop, or at work, or in your family, Are you bold? Are you out there in a winsome, kind, loving way?
Are you representing Jesus in a way that people would be attracted to Him? Does your Facebook indicate someone who's loving and kind and truthful and caring? Can I ask you? Do what it takes today. to be bold for the Lord Jesus Christ.
People are in desperate need. And regardless of the criticism that you may get, You'll never regret being bold for Jesus. I'm Dave Druhy, and that's all for today's program. More practical faith-building teaching from Chip Ingram.
Next time on Living on the Edge. Yeah. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
