Diabolical - Agenda # 3 - Intimidate and Isolate, Part 2

Have you ever seen someone perform a judo move?

I mean, like watching a 90-pound woman completely flip a 200-pound man? It's amazing. Even more amazing is what I call spiritual judo. It's when God takes the worst of our lives and flips them to become the greatest opportunities for our growth and His glory. If you're facing some really tough stuff today, stick around. God wants to do some spiritual judo under your most challenging circumstances. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians.

I'm Dave Drouin. And if you're in a difficult season of life right now, it can be hard to step back and see it as a part of God's plan. But as Chip continues in his series, Diabolical, I'll explain the ways the disciples struggled with this concept and how God grew the early church through hardship and persecution.

With that, if you have a Bible, turn now to Acts chapter 8 for part two of Chip's message, Intimidate and Isolate. Teresa and I were walking downtown many, many years ago, Santa Cruz, like weird, weird, weirder, right? And I mean, we love Santa Cruz, but let's, I mean, we've seen things that we go and you just go, eh, Santa Cruz, right? So, I mean, the musicians are out, the crazy stuff's going on and there's this big ruckus and it's outside of a bar area and people were starting to gather and there's this guy, you could tell he's the bouncer, you know, the black t-shirt and he's about this wide. And then when he turns this way, you ever seen those guys, their chests are this thick?

At six months old, they start lifting weights. I don't know how they do it. Big, big arms like this. And there's like two drunk guys and this guy can't handle them. Someone has called the police, a crowd is gathering and a police car comes. And this police car comes out and I'm just kind of like, honey, get back, but I don't want to miss out on what's going to happen, you know? And so this, it pulls up on the curb just a little bit and it's like, I wonder what's going to happen. The door opens and now ladies, what I'm about to say, this is not a pejorative comment.

Listen to the entire story before you think, he's down on women. I'm not down on women, but I'm thinking there's this huge, strong bouncer that can't handle these two guys that are just, I mean, they're sauced. The car pulls up, the door opens and out steps like a four foot 11 woman police officer.

And I'm going, this is going to be good. And what I saw there became a picture in my mind about spiritual warfare I've never forgotten. That young woman got out, got behind about 20 feet, gentlemen, stand down. And all of a sudden three heads went around and then she's got her hand on here and she's unclipping her gun and they got sober instantly. And then she said, gentlemen, right now, hands on the front of the car hood. Do you understand? I mean, you know, and I'm thinking the bouncer couldn't do it, but a little four foot 11, five foot woman can. You know why she can?

Cause she's got a badge right here that says the full authority of the state of California is behind her. For us, we're in Christ. The full authority of the God in heaven and his resurrected son and his shed blood.

We are in Christ. Second, she had a weapon that they didn't. Man, you can be big, you can be strong, kung fu karate, a 45 relieves all of that.

And you don't have to be very big to shoot it. And the Bible says that we have the sword of the spirit, which is the spoken word of God. And when you understand who you are and how to use that, God's going to mobilize us thousands and thousands and thousands of people into the people that share who are not ashamed to say, I love Jesus. I'm not anti intellectual. I'm not a bigot. I'm not politically correct. I love Jesus. It is the name above every name in heaven and on earth. And his word is true.

And I live in one of the most politically correct places in all the world. And I'm unashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation. And the, and the issue is you won't have to be weird.

And it will often happen in your suffering and in your pain and in the mate that left you and in the upside down house and the child who's having a struggle and in your loneliness and in your cancer biopsy, and they will watch your life and they will watch the power of Jesus in you. And you know what will happen? They're open. Your neighbors are open. Your coworkers are open. The people where you work out are open.

The people, the coffee shops are open where you get your dry cleaning done are open. 87% of all the people in America pray Christian or not. They're looking for hope, not from weird, zealous, better than Christians, but real people handling real problems and where you just love them. That's what God's going to do, but he's not going to do it. There's no big program coming people.

There's no big formula. There's no superstars we're shipping in. It's going to be us. Notice what happens after this big good versus evil event. There is a warning and the warning occurs in this man named Simon and the warning is going to have to do with genuine versus counterfeit faith. And here we pick up the story in verse 18.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, give me this ability so that everyone whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. Peter answered, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he'll forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. And it's not that God would be unforgiving. Peter's saying, man, you've got to come clean from the heart for real. For I see that you are full of bitterness and you're captive to sin.

Then Simon answered, pray to the Lord so that nothing that you've said will happen to me. And then when Peter and John had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem. And then now that's what they're doing. They're preaching the gospel where?

In many Samaritan villages. I mean, there's a breakthrough. But it's very interesting. This is like there's a story and there's like in parentheses, by the way, Simon, everyone who, quote, believes intellectual assent and goes through some external ritual, baptism, communion, raising a hand, walking forward.

Here's the truth. Intellectual assent and external ritual does not constitute saving faith. Simon sought to use God. In the paragraph before it said, and Simon believed.

The same word is used in James Chapter 2 verses 19 and 20. It doesn't always mean saving faith. It says the demons also believe and shudder. The demons believe that Jesus is the son of God. The demons believe he's the savior of the world. The demons believe in his deity. But they don't have personal saving relationship. They intellectually agree with those truths. Second thing, there's a lot of people that have kind of ritual.

Everyone else is getting baptized. Simon says, hey, man, I had this kind of power. They got more power.

I want that power. Simon tried to use God. There wasn't a change of heart we learn later. He wants the benefits of the power for his own personal use.

He intellectually agrees with what's happening. But there's no been internal transformation of heart. Now I'm going to say something and you need to just ask God to give you real ears to hear right now. For the last probably 15 to 30 some years, there's been sort of a new gospel and it's made it into the church and it's gone all around the world. And the new gospel goes something like this.

You may have tried Buddhism, self-help books, seminars. You may have worked at this job, tried that, and somewhere along the line someone said, why don't you try Jesus? Jesus came and paid for your sin. He wants to make you healthy. He wants to make you wealthy. He wants to make everything work out. Just believe in Jesus. You'll be upwardly mobile.

Your kids will all turn out right. And basically Jesus has very suddenly become your personal self-help genie to fulfill your agenda. And what you really want to do is use him to get what you want that what they think will make you happy and fulfilled. That's a big word now, fulfilled. Now when things get kind of hard or when the hard side of following this Jesus, it's like, you know, I'm really not interested in that.

It's what can he do for me? It's a consumer mentality. It's a Simon mentality. A lot of what is very clear about what it means to follow him, Christians about eight out of 10 in America, just disregard about very clear teaching about morality, very clear teaching about relationships, very clear teaching about commitment, about eight out of 10, their lifestyle, their priorities, their speech, their love or lack of love there. It doesn't line up with Jesus.

Now here's the danger. This is from Jesus lips. The most famous sermon Jesus ever gave was called the Sermon on the Mount. And he said, watch out for false prophets. Chapter seven, they come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. It's by their fruit you'll recognize them. And then he says that good fruit is on good trees and bad fruit is on bad trees.

Regardless of what the externals people say, it's the fruit, the evidence, the results. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we drive out demons who perform many miracles? And then I will say to them plainly, I never knew you.

Away from me you evil doers. You had external religion. We even got involved in some service, but he said, you know something, there wasn't a change of heart.

There wasn't real relationship. He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, it puts them into practice. He's like a wise man who builds his house on the rock and the rain comes down and the waters rise and the wind blows and it beats against it, but the house remains because it's on the rock. But every single person who hears these words of mine and does not obey is like a person who builds their house on the sand. And the rains come and the streams rise and the wind blows and they're gone. My observation is we may have hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in the church that are convinced that they have personal relationship with God, but by the fruit of their life, maybe there's a great possibility they don't.

Maybe they're like Simon, you intellectually believe. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes. Do you believe he's the son of God? Yes. Do you believe he died on the cross? Yes. Do you believe he rose from the dead?

Yes, intellectually. Have you ever recognized that your life has offended a holy God and you have to turn from that sin and it's in receiving that grace and following him, not just the parts that you like? And it's not about him fulfilling your agenda, it's he is God and you follow him with loyalty and therefore the fruits are a compassion and a love and a sacrifice and a commitment where you become more and more like Jesus, where his word is precious to you, where you talk to him, where there's tough issues but he is transforming your life.

See for a lot of people you just come once a month or a couple times a month, you check a box, you're a shade more moral than the next person, but Jesus is a self-help appendage to you as you live your life and God brought you in this room on this day so you could fear not and settle the issue today. If there's any doubt in your mind, you don't have to be afraid thinking, you know, some of you are better thinking right now, you know, I'm not sure, I've never thought about it like that and it's so crept into the life of the church, it's just let's just stop right now, let's settle that for some of you you're not sure, today is the day of salvation. If you've never placed your faith and repented of your sin and said I want to follow him, let's do that right now. Lord, I ask you because you know every heart, you know every situation and you love us.

God, it is out of your great love that you paid the price for our sin, not that that would be the end but a beginning. Can I invite you not just to follow along in a prayer but a transfer of trust and focus from you to accept the forgiveness of Christ and follow him. In your mind or heart, just pray, dear God, I admit I need you today.

I don't want to use you or manipulate you. I want to submit and follow you. I ask you to forgive me right now. I believe you died and paid for my sin.

I believe you rose from the dead bodily and you sit at the right hand of the father and I ask you to come into my life and I tell you I want to follow you and I desperately need your help. Lord, will you silence and overwhelm those who in their heart of hearts have turned from sin to follow you. Would you flood them with your love and courage and faith in Christ's name.

Amen. We're now going to see something that's absolutely amazing beginning in verse 26 and to the end of the chapter. The gospel is now going to do what Jesus said. After two years, it stuck in Jerusalem.

It was meant for evil by the enemy, fear and isolation, but the Spirit of God said, mm-mm, baby, we're going to do the spiritual jujitsu, judo move, and I'm going to use this persecution, this fear to take these two-year-old Christians to Samaria and then I'm going to take them to the Gentiles and now the gospel is going global. Everything I said is going to happen, it's going to start to happen and here's the way it's going to happen. He's going to choose what we call a prime mover. He's going to plant the gospel even before the church gets there through a unlikely person that we would say could never be ready to hear about Christ. He's an Ethiopian eunuch. He's like one of the cabinet members of the queen.

Candace, you'll read in just a minute, that's a queen title. The government of Egypt at this point in time is run by a woman. Her son is thought to be divine or direct descendant from the sun god and this eunuch who's a proselyte or at least a God-fearer has come to Jerusalem to worship because monotheism is so attractive in this warped world and he has a copy of the text. He's a wealthy man. He's a leader.

He has platform. He has tremendous influence and he's on this chariot coming back from Jerusalem, back toward Africa and Ethiopia here in this context isn't the Ethiopia that we know. It goes all the way from the northern part of Africa down to Sudan. Let's pick up the story as the gospel goes global, as the plan unfolds. Jesus said that we would receive power and the Holy Spirit would come upon us and we would be witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria, now we're going to see the uttermost parts of the world. Now an angel of the Lord, verse 26, said to Philip, go to the south, to the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out on his way and he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and he was on his way home and sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah and the spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and he heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet and I love this. This is the way you share. You don't have to preach at people. You just ask good questions. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked.

How can I? He said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit down with him and then he begins to read out of Isaiah 53, speaking of Christ. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shear with silence, so he did not open his mouth.

In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth and the eunuch said to Philip, tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. See what he does again? Philip's two years old in the Lord, but for two years, Philip's been digging in and all those Old Testament passages which lead to Jesus. He's been going to those meetings on the weekends where Peter or John or James preaches and he's been going to those small group meetings in the homes and talking about this new Messiah and how it works. How's it play out in your marriage? How's it play out with your kids?

How's it play out with your finances? All of a sudden, God says go on this road and he starts walking on this road and pretty soon there's this chariot of a very important influential man who's intimidating because he's wealthy and he's powerful and Philip's going, who am I? And God says, hey, just go walk by the chariot. So he goes and walks by the chariot. As he's walking by the chariot, the practice in this time in the world, whenever people read, they read out loud. And so as he stands near, he's hearing this guy and he's going, this is unbelievable. I mean, I'm supposed to stand by this chariot.

This Ethiopian guy is reading the book of Isaiah. And so he has a moment of boldness. He goes, hey, like, do you get what you're, you know what that's about? The guy goes, not really.

Why don't you come on up and sit down? And notice he just, then he just said, he took from that passage and began to explain, do you realize there's a God who loves you? Do you realize the problem of sin has been addressed? Do you realize there's purpose and hope? Do you realize there's a heaven? Do you realize that you can know this God personally through the son that he sent Jesus? Do you realize that your whole world and purpose can be transformed?

And by the way, here's what happens. It's a gift of God by grace. You receive it by faith and then you go public. And you know, I was baptized because baptism back then had a much bigger picture of total identification change.

You know, it's like I had an old uniform, I'm putting on a new uniform. And so pick up the story. What happens? As they traveled along the road, which came to some water, the eunuch said, look, here's water. Why should not be baptized? And he ordered the chariot to stop. And then both Phillip and the eunuch went down into the water and Phillip baptized him. Then they came up out of the water and the spirit of the Lord suddenly snatched, literally Phillip away and the eunuch didn't see him again, but he went on his way rejoicing. This was a great baptism. He said, wow, this is amazing. I just met God. I put my faith in Christ down up. There you go. Would that be just like amazing? And Phillip finds himself like, Whoa, that was amazing.

Now I'm in a different city, Azotus. And he traveled about preaching and sharing the gospel and all the towns that reached Caesarea. These are normal, regular, ordinary people where God is intervening and doing supernatural things. You know why? Because he loves people. He loves your boss. He loves your employees. He loves your neighbors. He loves your relatives. He loves the boss that you never think could ever be open to Christ.

Here's what I want you to get. Phillip obeys prompting by the Holy Spirit. That's what God wants us to do.

You don't have to lay it all out. You don't have to be a Bible scholar. What would you have said this week? God, okay, ready? This week, would you give me a little nudge about when to tell someone about you and maybe introduce them in some way to your Lord? Or you know what, God, I'm not sure I'm ready for that one. Could you just lead me to someone who has a problem and I'll ask him for coffee or ask him for lunch. I won't even bring up Jesus at first.

I'll just love him. What would happen if he said, You know, I understand you just went through divorce. You want to grab a cup of coffee? I've actually had that in my history.

Just love to hear how I could help you. Or hear your son's in the hospital. Or hear you got a problem, health issue. Or you know what? Man, I am so sorry.

I heard the downsizing happened and you were on the list. Can I, can I buy you dinner? You want to come over to our house? What if this week each one of us were prompted by the Holy Spirit to love someone, to reach out in some way and connect with them? You know what would happen? God will work. See, it's not that he doesn't prompt. It's that our ears get spiritual wax and we don't hear or we think it's for someone else.

Or we're so afraid, intimidated, he'll ask a big spiritual question. Here's my answer to the really hard ones. Are you ready for this? You can use this. I don't know.

I use it all the time. What about this, this, and this? And so and so says this, this, and this.

And this religion says this, this, and this. Great question. I don't know. But you know, would you be willing to read a little bit and talk about it? I'm just telling you people will. Philip obeys a prompting that God had prepared a heart to hear.

Isn't that amazing? See, the enemy doesn't want you to believe that. He wants you to be afraid to share your faith. He wants you to be afraid to go public. He wants you to be afraid of what people might think.

He wants you to be isolated. And the truth is God is sovereignly working in the lives of people all around you all the time. And the most unlikely people that you think would never come to Christ, he's already preparing. And the application is, fear not, boldly share the gospel every day in every way.

Not them, not some way, not our little huddle. Boldly, boldly. Here's what's true in the book of Acts. You know you're filled with the Spirit when you're bold. When you're filled with the Spirit, sometimes there's manifestation, sometimes there's not.

Sometimes this happens, sometimes it isn't. People always read through the book of Acts and they want to pick out this or pick out that. Here's one thing for sure that every group can know. When you're filled with the Spirit, you are bold. And the boldness isn't an arrogance. It's a boldness where your conviction is that the only hope for the world is Jesus. That the word of God is true and you love those people. And when you do, God will prompt you.

And in your fear, here's his promise. I call it the Matthew 28, 20 principle. After he told us to go into all the world and make disciples, I love this. I like it in the King James even.

Are you ready? Can I give a little King James here? And lo, I am with you always. Don't be afraid. I've given you a supernatural mission to bring people from darkness into light.

A darkness into light that will restore marriages, that will change people's eternities, that will change the whole trajectory of families, that will cause people's lives and all the ripples from them to change forever and ever and ever and ever. And you are my ambassadors. You are my full-time workers. I've entrusted my word and my truth to you. Don't be afraid.

I am with you. You're listening to Living on the Edge. Chip will be back with his application for this message Intimidate and Isolate from his series Diabolical, Satan's Agenda for Planet Earth, Including You. Many Christians are naive to Satan's schemes and head into their day-to-day lives unprepared and unprotected. But in reality, Satan does his best work in subtle ways. Chip's heart for this series is to open your eyes to the devil's truly diabolical plots, both confrontational and unseen. As you listen to this series, we hope you'll feel properly equipped to defend yourself and your family. For all the series information and resources for Diabolical, visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

That's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Well, Chip, as you ended your teaching today, you really emphasized the idea of boldness. But the reality is there are a lot of people who've been going to church forever, and they're not experiencing the boldness you're talking about.

Their lives don't look much different than, you know, non-Christians. What's missing is discipleship, something Living on the Edge is absolutely passionate about. But what do you mean when you say that word? And what do you think is missing today in the lives of many Christians? Well, Dave, when I think about discipleship, I think of what the word means.

It means a learner. Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. He didn't say it's very important that you listen to what I say and agree with me intellectually and try and be a good person.

What he said is, I want you to follow me. The idea of a rabbi is that you would enter into his path, that you would meet with him personally, that you would meet with him in the context of a group and have discussion. And it was all for the purpose that when you got done, you would be more and more and more like your rabbi.

And one of the things that came out of the COVID crisis was something I would have never dreamed of. We did one-on-one mentoring or discipling through a thing that we called daily discipleship with Chip. I literally sit down with a cup of coffee and happen to have a camera crew. And I look into the camera to just one person and teach people how to study the Bible and talk about my own struggles and how do you hear God's voice and how do you actually grow and just mentoring people one-on-one. And to our exclamation and glory to God in this last year, over 100,000 people have joined me in these daily discipleships that we've created. And the response has just been so encouraging. And so I want to invite you to join me in that.

You can get that on the app or livingontheedge.org. But I want to invite you to join me in making disciples. And so I'd ask you to pray.

And I'd ask you if this matters to you. Or if you're one of those people that have benefited, you know, one of those 100,000 that have done it with me, would you really pray today about giving a financial gift so that we could help others? And whatever God leads you to do, thank you. Thank you very much.

What a great challenge. If you want to help us pursue our mission to make disciples, we'd love to have you join us. And right now, thanks to a small group of financial partners, every gift we receive between now and July 6th will be doubled. To make a donation, just give us a call at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. Or if you prefer to give online, go to livingontheedge.org. Tap listeners, just tap donate.

Let me thank you in advance for your generosity. Okay, Chip, let's get to that application we promised. As we closed today's program, you probably heard me do something that I rarely do. In fact, it was one of those spontaneous moments in the life of a message in a service. And I got right in the almost near the middle of the message. And it was just obvious that people needed to understand and respond to the gospel, to be given the offer of eternal life, and to stop right there and to pray and receive Christ, to repent, to turn from their sins, and in that moment, respond to Christ. And I did it as a clear prompting from the Holy Spirit in that message as I gave that. And in the services that I could see, about 35 or 40 people in each service prayed to receive Christ. I have to believe that many listening to my voice right now, as I shared that then, as you heard it a few moments ago, that God was saying, you need to do that.

And so, let's stop right now. If you need to trust Christ, if you need to turn from your sin and receive the grace of God and have eternal life, then right now do it. Call out to God in your heart of hearts, Oh God, I believe that you died on the cross to pay for my sin.

I believe, Lord Jesus, you rose from the dead. I want to turn from my self-dependency and my self-focus and my sin, and I turn fully and completely with the empty hands of faith, and I put my trust in your work for me. Will you come into my life right now and forgive me?

Will you make me your son, make me your daughter? And Lord, thank you that you said that you're knocking on the door of my heart, and if I open the door, you will come into my life and you'll live with me and me with you. Right now, tell the Lord that's the desire of your heart. Ask him to come in, and then I want you to tell someone in the next 24 hours, I prayed, I asked God sincerely to forgive me of my sin, and now I need to learn how to grow. I want you to text or call or find the greatest Christian that you know and tell him or her what you did, and this week find a church that teaches the Bible and get moving forward. God loves you.

He's forgiven you. He's got a great plan for your life, but you need to now get into his word and grow. God bless you and keep pressing ahead. If you prayed with Chip, I hope you'll take a minute and call us at 888-333-6003. We love to talk with you and get a free resource in your hands that'll help you understand what you just did and where to go from here. If you'd rather, go to the New Believers tab on our website, LivingOnTheEdge.org, or tap Special Offers on the app where you'll find that same resource. We just want to help you get started on your new journey of faith. You'll be with us again next time, and until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.