Unstoppable - Learning to Walk in the Power of God, Part 2

How do you know when you're walking in your power and your strength or in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit? Today on Living on the Edge, I'll give you three characteristics so that you can know for sure when you're walking in the power of God.

Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drury, and Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. We're in the middle of Chip's series, Unstoppable, God's Agenda for Planet Earth, including you. Last time, Chip explained how we can boldly share our faith without fear. In a minute, he'll unpack how courage and wisdom were instrumental in launching the early church and how we can apply those same virtues in our daily walk today.

And before we get started, if you're new to Living on the Edge or missed any part of this series, you can always catch up on the Chip Ingram app. Here now is Chip with part two of his message, Learning to Walk in the Power of God. The second lesson from Acts 4 is fear not, the Holy Spirit will protect you.

Because see, once you say, well, if it starts coming out of my mouth, well, you know, I'm going to get a bad reputation or might limit my job or, you know, he might pretend, oh, gosh, what if it works? I might have to go on a missions trip or, so pretty soon we have this fear of what might happen. Notice what happens as we pick up the story in verse 13. When they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized they were unschooled ordinary men.

That's good because that's who most of us are. They were astonished and they took note of these men that they'd been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who'd been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then they conferred together. What are we going to do with these men?

They asked. Everybody living in Jerusalem knows that they've done an outstanding miracle and we can't deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer anymore in his name. Then they called them back again and commanded them to speak or teach no longer in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, judge for yourselves whether it's right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. And they had further threatened them than they let them go and they couldn't decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for all that had happened for the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old. Will you underline this one verse? We could not stop or help ourselves from thinking.

It's unstoppable. But notice what he says. He doesn't say we couldn't stop speaking about these intellectual arguments. We couldn't stop thinking about this obligation and duty. He says we couldn't stop speaking about what we personally have seen and what we personally have heard. You know, when I hear some of us as pastors tell people about what they need to do in terms of being more active and caring and sharing for their faith, I think we pushed the wrong end of the stick.

I think that's a mixed metaphor, but you get the idea, right? See, I think we're always telling people what they ought to do, ought to do, ought to do, ought to do. Here's the deal. When you are experiencing the love of Jesus and you're experiencing his power, when you see him working in you, when you hear his voice, you won't be able to stop telling people about what's going on. Because what's going to happen over time is you're going to start caring way less about what people think of you and way more about how much God thinks of them.

And that's freeing. Notice the promise that Jesus gave. He says the Holy Spirit will protect you, fear not. And then notice the very last night. I mean, he knew. These were people that lived with Jesus for three years. Night and day, they knew him. And on the very last night, he said, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you'll have trouble, but take heart.

I've overcome the world. He protected Peter and John. It doesn't mean you're not going to have a hard time. They had a night in jail.

We'll see later. They go through some difficult times, but God will protect you. He can protect your heart. He can protect your children, protect your fears. But you need to understand when you boldly step out and allow him not just through your life, but through your words to speak, he'll take care of you. He'll protect you. I mean, he's God. He spoke and the world came into existence. And he loves you. And he loves those people that you care about that so many times, right, you get right there and the words are stuck right here and you just can't get them out. There is no other name given unto man under heaven by which we must be saved.

You are the conduits. You are the greatest Christian, some people know. Some people may never hear unless they hear through you and me.

The third lesson is fear not. The Holy Spirit will empower you. Some of us feel like, you know, I just, I don't have what it takes. It's not just that I don't know what to say.

I just don't have what it takes. Notice how the story continues on verse 23 and where and how they experience God's power on their release. Peter and John went back to their own people and they reported all that the chief priest and the elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

Listen to this prayer. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. And then they quote Psalm chapter two. Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Do you see what they're doing? They were just taking baby steps.

I mean, the morning just it was just less than 48 hours ago. Peter's just on his way to a prayer meeting. He doesn't know anything any more than you and I on the way to the prayer meeting. This happens and the miracle happens. Then he ends up in jail. Then he's in front of all these really smart, powerful people and stuff starts coming out of his mouth.

When he got done with that, I bet John went, whoa, man, where did that come from? Oh, remember, he said he would speak through if that happened. And then they leave and they go back and they tell the people this is what happened. And then they realize, wait a second, this is exactly what David prophesied. He said the nations would rage. They would come against his Messiah. And then notice what the text says as they prayed to the God who created everything, who's in charge, who's sovereign. What does he say?

Indeed, he gives the examples. Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and with the people of Israel and this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and your will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and notice his request, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And then in response, kind of like God saying, you boys, you're on the right track. Verse 31, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly.

Now, notice one line that may catch you is verse 29, verse 28 right above it. They did what your power and your will had decided beforehand that should happen. God wasn't caught off guard by Judas, he wasn't caught off guard by Herod, he wasn't caught off guard by the religious leaders or by the Gentiles. You need to understand there's a sovereign God over his story that we call history and he's absolutely in control. However, he gave us as individual beings the freedom to make choices that we're responsible for. Judas, the Gentiles, Herod, Pontius Pilate, they freely made those choices that God was aware of. He is absolutely sovereign and they're absolutely responsible and free moral agents.

Anytime you push either of those things to an extreme, you get in trouble. God's ship of history will arrive exactly where he determines it to be. But inside of that ship of history on the journey, we all make very individual decisions that we have the freedom to make and are held responsible for that do make a very real legitimate difference. But Peter was saying from the big picture, God knowing his love for us, knowing the human heart, he would bring his son and allow these people to rage against him. And notice what the issue here is, he empowers them. Notice they didn't pray for protection. They prayed for more power. See, something has happened, it's a real subtle thing. When paradigms shift and they happen real subtly, what happens is you don't even see them happen and pretty soon you're over here and you're using all the same words and you're in your heart of hearts as far as you know doing exactly what you think is right.

But the paradigm has shifted. This group of people actually believe that they were on mission and their mission was to fulfill what Jesus told them who'd raised from the dead. They felt like their number one priority was to take this message of life, that people's eternity was hanging in the balance and the creator of heaven and earth and all that there is had actually empowered them to express his love to people.

They weren't trying to figure out how Jesus could make their life easier. They didn't pray, oh God, change the circumstances. Oh God, stop the persecution. What do they pray?

Give us power. God, will you enable us to do even more of what just happened? In a couple chapters, it gets worse in their persecution and instead of whining and complaining, they thank God for the unspeakable privilege of being counted worthy to suffer for him. That's a little different than Christianity today, isn't it?

See, what's happened, the subtle shift is our consumeristic mindset, oh God, make my world work out, little by little by little has drifted into the church. And so the depth of our hearts are prayers that go something like this. God, make my life work out. God, give me a nice home. God, help everyone I know and love not to get sick or get bad. God, help me find that right person so I'll really be happy. God, once I find that right person, will you give us a couple kids?

2.8 would be great. And then would you please protect them and allow them to get in really good schools. And God, you know, they have to be in this and this and this and this because I want them to be the king of their world because they need to be the best in music, the best in that.

And I'm going to tutor them for their SAT schools. And really what I want to do is I want to be the king of my world. I want my world to totally work out. Jesus, will you please help me make my work out so I can be super happy and fulfilled because I'm the center of the universe and I'm the king?

And that's how we view. God, what's wrong? Why did you allow this cancer to happen? Why did I lose my job?

Why did my house go upside down? As though God's purpose is to be his, your self-help genie. You're on his team.

He's not on your team. You're on mission. They don't pray for God take away all the pain. Give us power in a fallen world so that when I lose my house, they see something different. When I get cancer, they see something different. God, life is so short and so temporal. Would you enable and empower me and give me all that I need to fulfill your divine plan for my life?

Here's what you got to understand. When you do that, out of his overflowing mercy, he will often bring a wonderful person into your life. He'll often give you usually three or two, not 2.8 kids. He will often bless your kids with talent and allow them to get into nice universities or be gifted in sports or music. And if properly understood, they'll realize what do they have that they haven't received, and they'll be stewards of that for the glory of God. Not asking Jesus to make their life work out to make them, quote, fulfilled and happy.

See, that paradigm shift changes everything. This group was trying to figure out how do we fulfill the agenda God gave us, not how do we get God to fulfill the agenda we think will make us happy. And so he answers their prayer.

I couldn't help but see this. You know, they go through this and as soon as they get out of jail, they came together corporately and they prayed. Just like before God. And then their prayer was that they could be on mission. And then what we find is they gather in community.

See, you all need to understand we're not trying to figure out how many people we can get inside this building and count that number and be happy with that. And figure out how we can just sort of up everyone's moral quotient 15 or 20 or 30 percent and give everyone a little nice. I'm a Christian. We're trying to become Romans 12 Christians. We're trying to be authentic followers who are surrendered to God, who live separate from the world's values, have a sober self-assessment, who love each other, serving in love passionately, and supernaturally respond to evil with good.

The fourth way of God, Old and New Testament, is that individual people who say, I will discipline my life and arrange it to come before God. I'm going to get connected from the heart and get in community where the real me shows up and meets real needs for the right reason and the right way. And I'm going to do all that because I have a purpose and a destiny by the God who created me. I'm going to be on mission 24-7.

That BIO life brings about transformation in your home, with your roommate, at your work, in your neighborhood. That's the game plan. And so it starts with baby steps. But after the baby steps, God's looking for a church and a group of people that do what? Walk in the power of God.

We can't do this. Everything I've described, the vision of this church, it's laughable in our strength. God's looking for some people that don't walk in His power because what happens? Then the Spirit of God is working inside of you and He's doing supernatural things because have you ever thought God lives inside of you if you're an authentic follower of Christ?

I mean, think of that. Your expectations ought to be pretty high. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Now, you notice we talked about fears and did you notice each time there's a promise? Notice what Jesus promised in John 15, 16. You didn't choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit will last or remain. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. So what do they ask?

They ask for more power. This is the very last night again, John 15. What's Jesus saying? You're on mission. I chose you.

You're on My team. There's something to do. And you should produce fruit is first and foremost the in character quality, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, generous, self-control that you'll become like Christ and then you'll fulfill that mission. Final lesson, lesson number four is fear not the Holy Spirit will provide all your needs. So one of our fears is you start getting generous with your time.

You start taking it, you get vulnerable with people, you know. You start getting generous with your money. You know, down deep, all of us are like, ooh, what about me, right? I mean, I'm all for being like Jesus, but I'm thinking if I do this, what about me? What about my needs? What about my spiritual needs, my emotional needs, my financial needs, my social needs? And so what we do is we create this little box and say, God, I want you to know I'm really all in as long as it's inside that box, right? It'll take me too much out of my comfort zone, whether that's financially or socially or geographically, but God, I really, and as you grow, oh, I made a bigger box. And here's what the Holy Spirit wants you to know. He wants you to know, you know what? Stop thinking with the small pie mentality.

The small pie mentality means it's people who think like the world is filled with limited resources. I mean, the God who spoke the world into existence, what do you need He can't give you? You need some money? Give you some money. You need some faith? He'll give you some faith.

You need a friend? He'll give you a friend. But He gives those things to what? To people that are on mission.

Notice, well, how does He do that? We pick up the story in verse 33, all the believers were one in heart and mind, unity. No one claimed that any of His possessions was His own, but they shared everything that they had.

With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There was no needy person among them for, from time to time, this isn't socialism, it wasn't communism, it was voluntary, but there was this love for one another, and so from time to time, I mean, you've got to remember, it's a startup, right? Startup needs an infusion of capital. It's a startup group with startup leadership that's going to change the world, and so they were sharing and helping one another as a continual basis, but it was voluntary, you didn't have to do it, and then from time to time, some of the people with significant resources said, you know, if we're going to get this thing off the ground, and if we really care about one another, you know, man, I've got two homes, I don't need two.

I've got four of these, I don't need four. And so they would sell some of their property, and notice what they'd do, bring it to the apostles' feet, and they'd distribute it to anyone as they might have need. Here's Jesus' promise. Jesus said to you and me, when you fear, what about my needs? But seek first His kingdom.

There's the paradigm shift. His rule, His agenda, His mission, and then His righteousness, being like Him, being loving like Him, being kind like Him, being pure like Him, being holy like Him. Seek first God's agenda, God's kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. See, if you had one of those highlighters, if I had a yellow highlighter, and we were like a second-grade class, I would say, okay, everyone, put your notes down, please. And then I would take the yellow highlighter, and then in big, bold words across sort of horizontal, those notes that you have, I would write F-A-I-T-H. So you could still read all the notes, but you'd realize at the end of the day, what God is saying is Jesus made promises.

You're on mission. It's faith. Everyone in the world is either going to live by fear or by faith. You fear rejection. You fear the future. You fear the stock market. You fear what other people think. All your fears are what dysfunctions grow out of.

Or you step back. You either fear stuff or you fear God. Everybody fears something. But if you fear God, then you live by faith. And you say, God, I'm afraid to live any other way than the way you want me to. And yes, it is reverential awe. But it's also, He's the all-knowing, all-powerful, consuming fire who's put me on mission. It's not like, I hear people pray like it's negotiations. Well, I know you created everything there is, and you know what?

I think the top three look pretty good to me, but I'm really not interested in numbers four and five. Like, who are you talking to? You know? God's commandments aren't like a salad bar that... But what happens is if you could just understand how deeply you're loved. He that spared not his own son, how would he not freely give you anything and everything you need? He's so for you, but you need to be positioned to be blessed. You know, instead of the sort of guilt route, what I've learned when God helps me begin to see other people... Because, you know, it says when you're walking in the power of the Spirit, what's the evidence here?

They're unified, right? They're bold, and they're generous. When God's Spirit is working in an individual in a group's heart, you will find a group of people that are bold, they're unified, and they're very generous. And what I've learned over the years is trying to muster that up doesn't work, but when I can see through the lens of others' needs, God does something in my heart where I want to extend the money he gave to me or the time he gave to me or the gifts he gave to me to really care about other people. Chip will be right back with his application for this message, Learning to Walk in the Power of God. You're listening to Living on the Edge, and we're in the middle of Chip's series, Unstoppable, God's Agenda for Planet Earth, Including You.

Now, if you're thinking, how am I a part of God's agenda? This series is for you, because the fact is, the disciples were regular people, too. They had their struggles, hardships, and pain just like everyone else.

But they remained faithful to God, and that's the heart of the series. When ordinary people, like you and me, continually depend on God, He will use us in extraordinary ways. I hope you'll make time to join us for each part of this series as we explore what it means to depend on God and stay focused on His mission for this world. For more information about our unstoppable resources, visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, Chip, several years ago, I remember you made a strategic decision toward, rather than simply being a teaching ministry, Living on the Edge would become a discipleship ministry. And to do that, you began creating small group resources.

Could you tell us a little bit about why you did that and what the impact's been? Well, Dave, it's really true. With the rise of the Internet, what we discovered was people could get great Bible teaching from lots of resources for free. And we thought to ourselves, why does God have us on radio and podcast and app? And what I know is that people hear God's Word and that's a great first step. But unless you do life in community, unless you sit around a living room or a kitchen table or get on Zoom with five or six other people and dig into God's Word for yourself, very little life change happens. And so we started creating small group resources and literally, at least once a year, basically say, hey, we will give you this entire resource.

Here's the workbook, you can stream it, do it for free if you'll just launch a group. And to our thrill, I think we've launched somewhere between 300 and 350,000 small groups. But what I really want to say is that God has caused life transformation to occur and discipleship to occur because we've been able to create these resources. And we create them so Christians live like Christians and we create them because that's the heart of God. It's to go into all the world and make disciples.

But they're very expensive to film, to create. And I just want to remind our listeners that every time you give to Living on the Edge, you're creating a broadcast that goes here and across the world, but you're also creating small group resources. And since then, a number of other resources that get into the hands of people to help them go from I heard God's word to I believe God's word to I'm living God's word.

And that's when life change happens and that's when Christians impact their world like never before. That's our dream and I want to invite those listening to my voice right now. Would you join us financially? Will you help us help Christians live like Christians?

If you believe God is calling you to join that future with us, we'd be honored to have you on our team. And while we're in our mid-year match, every gift we receive will be doubled thanks to some very generous friends of the ministry. So now is a great time to become a financial partner. And to send a gift or to become a monthly partner, just give us a call at 888-333-6003. Or if you prefer to donate online, our web address is livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, just tap donate. For all of us here, thank you in advance for your support. Well now here's Chip with a final thought. As we close today's program, I ended the teaching time with the characteristics of people that are walking in the power of God. People that walk in the power of God, there's unity. They're not at odds with one another. By the power of God's grace, they look over things that kind of bug them and they love each other.

Second, they're bold. I mean, the Holy Spirit gives them words and gives them the courage to step out and boldly share that they love Christ and that they love people and they take steps of action. They don't just have good intentions.

And third, they're generous. They really recognize, since the Spirit's in control, that what they have isn't their own. And if God wants to tap them on the shoulder and they're supposed to give away some time or some treasure or some talent, they just do it. See, the common denominator in this entire message of walking in the power of God is fear not, and then each point starts with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will protect. The Holy Spirit will provide. The Holy Spirit will empower. And you know what that all boils down to? It boils down to the very last night when Jesus was empowering and preparing his disciples for when he would leave.

And he said, I am the vine and my Father is the vine dresser and you are the branches. And basically what he says is it's not trying harder and harder to be a good Christian. It's not your religion.

It's not your morality. What's he say? If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you can ask whatever you wish. And then he gives him the purpose there in John 15 toward the end. He goes, these things I've spoken to you about, just abiding and loving and staying connected to me.

Why? That my joy might be in you and that your joy might be made full. You know, often people hear a message like this that you've heard today and they just go to I feel guilty. I should be sharing my faith more. I ought to do more of this. I ought to do more of that. I'm going to try harder.

I'm not so sure that's the application at all. You need to experience God's love more. You need to realize he cares for you. You can't muster it up. You need to get connected deeply to him and you need to look at other people through his eyes of compassion.

And when you do, the early disciples weren't trying hard to follow Jesus. What did they say? We can't stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.

They were experiencing him. That's my prayer for you. It's my prayer for the Church. It's my prayer that Christians will live like Christians, not because we try harder and we have external morality, but that we will experience him more and have supernatural power and concern.

Are you ready? Let God love you and then share it with one person today. You know, a couple of the points Chip just made are right off his message notes. They're a great resource to help you get the most out of his teaching. Chip's notes provide his outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. Chip's message notes are a quick download at LivingOnTheEdge.org under the Broadcasts tab. App listeners just tap Fill In Notes and you're set. Well, be sure to join us next time. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.