What Now? What Next? - Trust Not Technology, Part 1

If you found yourself in a dark place sometime through this pandemic and you really wonder what does it look like to trust God?

How does that actually work? Stay with me. I'm going to share my journey and a journey that I shared with a group of people who are going through even worse times than me. You don't want to miss today's broadcast. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouy and in a minute we'll conclude our new series, What Now?

What Next? In this program you'll hear a message Chip originally shared with a group of pastors who were really struggling during one of the toughest parts of the pandemic. But the truth Chip focused on then is still relevant for all of us when we experience hardships. Now before we begin, if you've been encouraged by this series, would you make time after this program to share it with a friend?

Either through the Chip Ingram app or by downloading the free MP3s at livingontheedge.org. Well here's Chip with his message, Trust Not Technology. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And contrary to what a lot of people might think, he's moving, he's building, he's refining his church right now.

And he's taking the circumstances in the world, even the ones that seem so negative, so anti-God, he's orchestrating a world where he's going to cause his church to triumph. But here's the question, will you be a part of it? Will you be one of those that the Holy Spirit whispers into your ear? Will you be one of those who say, oh Lord, I'll build up the wall, I'll stand in the gap? Will you be one whose heart is fully his as his eyes are going to and fro throughout the whole earth so he could support you right where you're at?

And by the way, let's not get confused. This isn't about you being the pastor or church leader or shepherd of some big mega church or you becoming famous or any, it's no, no, no. It's you doing your part in the body of Christ.

You being fully surrendered. It's you fixing your eyes on that which is not seen, the eternal, instead of fixing your eyes on that which is seen, the temporal. It's you saying and me saying with the apostle Paul that these momentary light afflictions that we go through as we're surrendered, as we sacrifice, as we follow whatever Jesus calls us to do, they're nothing compared to the glory that's going to follow. But I just don't want you to get any kind of idea that, boy, I just went to the mountaintop and God spoke to me and this is what he calls all of us to do.

This series was grown out of deep, deep weakness. In fact, I tracked it and as I prayed about what to share with you, the Lord said, I want you to share with them that actually it came in three stages and each one was a moment of deep, deep weakness. And then I want you to remind them what I told the apostle Paul. And you say, well, what did he tell the apostle Paul? When the apostle Paul thought he couldn't take it anymore and he had an affliction and he asked once, he asked twice, he asked three times, what did God say to him? Paul, I'm not taking away the affliction. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

And that's what I want you to know. It's not about having it all together. It's actually recognizing that we don't and that we have a desperate level of need. Desperate people pray desperate prayers.

Desperate people are dependent and the Holy Spirit takes his word and he works in us when we're desperate and there's this sense that we need you desperately. So this all started back in July. And to make a very long story short, in the middle of the pandemic, I got very discouraged. And then I had a couple days where I went from discouragement to getting depressed, about three hours, two days in a row. And I knew enough that this is a dark place.

I don't want to go there. I sort of slapped myself. And then this thought came to me because, you know, I've done a lot of pastoral counseling and when I meet with people that are super self-focused, I say, look, why don't you get your mind off yourself and find someone that needs help more than you? And it's amazing when we do that, it helps.

So I thought, well, that's what I'll do. And I have a friend who's in charge of all the Protestant churches in Egypt. And we had done a number of things together and I'd been there a couple, three times.

And I thought, wow, the Middle East has got to be 10 times more difficult than what's happening in California. And so we got a Zoom call. We got on the call together and he just made this little phrase.

He said, you know, the government's been so helpful. I'm doing fine in my family, but the pastors are barely surviving. He said, it's so difficult. Markets are closed. People can't come to church.

The pandemic, it is just crushing the church. And I just happened to say, wow, I've been thinking about in my mind, he didn't get that part of it, a series about the art of survival. And to make a very long story short, he says, well, send it to me. And I went from this depressed, discouraged, focused on me, weak person to seeing a need of someone. And I think that was like on a Thursday. And I made a couple of phone calls and we got a film crew in my office.

I studied all weekend. I'd been praying and thinking. And I created a little three-part series.

And then God did something. We did it for all the churches in Egypt. And then Tim, who heads up our international, said, you know, I think there's a need for this. And pretty soon there's 300 cities in India. And then right now media and YouVersion and other partners and OneHope. And pretty soon it's in Africa. And that series about the art of survival began to go around the world. And then a pastor in India said, you know, we are hurting.

Is there any way, just once a month, could you just do a teaching seminar for us church leaders and shepherds? And so we said, well, sure. And I thought, well, what should that be? And we began to go into the Psalms. And it was mostly us saying, oh, God, we need you. And so we did a series during that time. And as we were coming to the end of that, they said, have you thought about doing something else? And I was exhausted to be candid. And I shared a little bit this earlier.

It was about the middle of December and late November. And during that time I was asking myself, God, what are you doing? This pandemic, where do we go? What's next? And I was reading just book after book and listening to books and futurist and being in the Word. And at that time I began to dig in at a very deep level. And I just still remember the day where the Lord said, okay, here's the basics.

This is nothing fancy. I want my church to get back to Jesus. Not just Jesus, the God man, but Jesus, the anointed one. Jesus, the Messiah. The Messiah is the deliverer.

The Messiah is the hope of nations. And as I, you've all had this experience in different ways. And as I, as I pray and I said, well, Lord, what does that look like?

And I don't mean to be too mystical here. God speaks to us different ways, but literally it was the word C H R I S T came into my mind's eye and then literal by little the Holy Spirit was, Chip, I want my church to focus on Christ, not causes. They're important, but he's first. I want my church out of this pandemic to be an agent of healing, not respond in hostility. Chip, I want my church to come back to relationships from the heart, not real estate and building and all the rest. Chip, I want in the midst of this, as the world is going to change, I long for them to be innovative and not respond with indignation. And Chip, I want them to focus on substance.

I want them to come back to my word instead of being focused on success. And Chip, I want my church to focus on trust, on faith, believing me, not technology. You know, if you, you know, watch the news, go on the internet, listen to all the pundits, all the experts, all the scientists, the world would say technology is our savior. Technology is going to solve everything.

And I think in some ways we in the church have, have drifted a bit in thinking that, well, yeah, and now we can use technology in our services and now we're using zoom and doing all kinds of different things. And here's what I heard and I believe is so true. Without faith, it's impossible to believe God.

For those who come to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek me. And then I had a handful of days where many of you understand this. I mean, I got dark in my mind, dark thoughts. I wasn't down. I was really depressed and I tried to break out.

I tried to break out and I just couldn't. And I remember doing two things. I remember that was the point where I called a mentor and I've just found when there's thoughts in your mind and you're getting discouraged and thoughts that you would, Oh God, I would never quit.

I would never not do, you know, when you get there, if you don't get it out in the light, bad things happen. And what I'm trying to express to you is this has been the journey. And so I called a mentor. He's 86 years old. He's a godly man.

He's been like a dad to me since I was 28. And I said, I need to just get out of my head. Thoughts that are going through my mind. I'm stuck.

I've been deeply depressed and I can't get out of it. And there's dark, dark thoughts. I'm oppressive.

And I, no holds barred. I shared every thought, every struggle that I had. And he prayed with me, said, call me tomorrow.

I'm going to track with you. And he did. And then the second thing I did out of that wave is I took hold of some key passages that I memorized and I met, I re-memorized them and I reviewed them sometimes eight, 10, 12 times a day. And I turned off media and I said no to the influences. And you know what? I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't in some big sin. But as I walked through this process, God started to show me some idols here, some flabbiness here, some things that need to be addressed there. And he began to work in my heart and then began to restore the joy of my salvation. Here's what I want you to hear.

The journey we're talking about has a very high price but has a much higher reward. But I want you to get that each step along the way that allowed me, a very ordinary guy, to have this privilege to get to talk to you in this series, it grew out of weakness in July. It grew out of even more weakness in the fall and then even a darker weakness at the very end of the year. And each aspect is I was more broken, more weak, more in need and his power.

I was desperate. I fasted in ways that I haven't in years. I've memorized in ways like I haven't in years. I recognized that because of COVID, I used to have a band of brothers that I met with all the time and I haven't had that.

I got that reignited even if I can't do it the way I want to, you know, social distancing and masking. But I went through and I said, Lord, whatever I need to do out of my weakness and as I did that, his power, out of I did that, his joy. God has made you his servant. You're his shepherd. You're his church leader. You might be in a remote part of a distant country. You might be in a big city.

You might speak Chinese or Spanish or French or Swahili or English. You might be the head of a denomination or you might be a solo pastor that has maybe 20 or 30 people and maybe even gather around a tree. Here's what I know. Our God is going to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I know our God is searching for a man or a woman whose heart is fully his and he'll strongly support you.

I know that he wants you to stand in the gap where you are in your world to be that person that would hear his whisper and that would say, Lord, I'm all in. I'm surrendered. I'm going to be a healing agent. Lord, I'm going to focus on relationships. I don't know what the church is going to do, but in my future, I'm going to make disciples. I'm going to pass on to faithful men and faithful women the things that you've entrusted to me and then I'm going to make sure that they pass them on to others.

Lord, I'm not going to mourn and be upset about what we've lost and I can't do this and I can't do that. I'm going to be one of your innovators. I'm going to look at the opportunities both inside the church and outside the church that could have never happened except for COVID and then Lord, I have confessed and I've repented. I will be a man or a woman first of your word. I will dig into it like I never have before. I will study it. I will memorize it. I will meditate on it. I will find a small group of people that they will do life with me and then Lord, this may be the biggest one. I'll trust you. I'm always amazed at some of the lines that Jesus gave us that they seem so simple but in John 6, there was a group of people that came to him and they saw the miracles and they saw his amazing teaching and they said, Lord, so how do we do the work of God?

What's it really look like? I love this. He says, this is the work of God that you believe on him who he has sent. Do you know that God's will, there might be all kind of issues in your life. Here's the number one thing God wants to do in your life, in my life, in every Christian but especially us shepherds. He wants you to trust him. He wants you to believe. Now, I'm talking about biblical faith. He wants you to believe to the point of acting. Believe to the point of addressing whatever he shows you. Believe to the point that you step out not knowing how it's going to come out. Faith isn't a feeling. Faith is believing that God really exists, that he can still part a Red Sea.

Your Red Sea might look different. He can still take five lows and provide supernatural ways. He can still touch a body and heal someone. He can open doors.

He can change governments. This is the God that we worship. This is the God he wants us to come back to.

The Yahweh, the I am that I am, the true, the one and only God of the universe. You know, we've been in Romans 12 because it talks so much about well, you know, how do you return to substance or how do you develop relationships or each one of those. I gave you a little passage in Romans. Do you realize that the first eleven chapters of Romans are the clearest, most profound, most detailed explanation of the Gospel, right? The first three chapters, the problem of all mankind, they're lost. Chapters four and five, God's answer, by faith we've received this free gift. The question of how do we live out this new life, chapter six, seven and eight is sanctification. The question of well, if God had a plan for Israel and now there's the church, how does it all work together, chapters nine, ten and eleven.

And then we get to chapter twelve. And in chapter twelve he says, therefore I urge you. And what he urges us first and foremost to do is to offer our bodies. That's normal Christianity that you're all in. And then he says there's an ongoing journey to be separate from the world's values. And then in verses six through eight he says you need to have an accurate assessment of your gifts and your strengths and fit into my body. And then he's going to say I want you to serve and love one another authentically. And then he'll go on in fourteen through the end of the chapter and say this is how you respond to the evil in the world. You bless those who persecute you.

You never take your own revenge. It's a picture but all that is based on chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. It's the glorious grace of God and it's personal. And you know there's a lot of debate sometimes about this issue of what's our responsibility and God is sovereign and what's his part and what's our part. Well the person that wrote the most on the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is the Apostle Paul. And when he deals with it he sees this mystery and he breaks out in praise.

Let me read the very last doxology. This is the God that we serve from Romans chapter 11 verse 33 and on. Paul after looking at the problem of mankind, the gracious offer of grace, the Spirit living and transforming us, his plan for Israel, his plan for the church, oh the depth of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. In other words, who could ever figure out his paths, his ways, his mystery? He says, for who has known the mind of God or who became his counselor? Answer, no one. Or who has ever given to God that God should pay him back?

Answer, no one. And then I love this, for from him and through him and to him are some things, no, no, no, are all things. To him be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. I would like to invite you to take very seriously this new calling. I'd like to encourage you to ask and answer the question, what does it mean for you to be one of those people who God will tap on the shoulder and say, I'll strongly support you. You're a wall builder.

You're a gap stander. What will it look like for you to focus on the cause of Jesus more than the causes of the world? To be a healer, an innovator, a relationship oriented pastor, church leader. To focus on the substance of God's word rather than just external success and to be someone who's willing to trust God no matter what.

That's our calling. And my encouragement to you is 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 9 and 10. It is in your weakness God's power will be revealed. And I would encourage you to lean in like the Apostle Paul did. Most gladly, therefore, I will delight.

Lean in. Boast is the word, literally, in the Greek. In my difficulties, my persecutions, my weaknesses, my struggles. For when I am weak, then I am strong. But I'm guessing you're going to find yourself weak, struggling, having spiritual opposition and in desperate need of that mentor and in desperate need of God's word and in desperate need of other people around you to help you on this journey. And I have no idea where the Lord is leading you and what all this will look like. Our sovereign good, all-knowing, all-powerful God loves you, is for you, and wants to use you in ways beyond what you could ever think or imagine for his glory and for your good. Father, in Jesus' name we come weak, dependent, inadequate, unable in and of ourselves to do a single thing that we've talked about. We thank you that greater are you than the one that is in the world. We thank you that we are victorious in Christ. Lord, we thank you that we never labor in vain when we labor in the Lord.

God, we thank you that you call us sons and daughters and you sing over us with delight and that you want to help us. Give us courage, Lord. Give us faith.

Help us to trust you. And then help us to persevere because as we move forward, it will be against the stream and we need you desperately. Thank you that you will answer this prayer because we know it's your will. We will be a part of your church forcefully moving forward in this amazing season of world history. Before we do anything else today, I want you to know that was my prayer with literally 8,000 pastors from 60 countries as we were all grappling and are still grappling with what does it look like to lead the church. And I want to ask you, what does it look like for you in your world, in your weakness, in your struggle, in your uncertainty to continue to walk with God, to make a difference when people are more open than ever before? It will be in our struggle and our weakness that God will use us in the greatest way.

What you need to learn is how that actually works. In our next broadcast, I'm going to share with you some very, very specific steps that God is leading us not to survive, but to actually thrive. See you next broadcast. Thanks Chip.

You've been listening to Chip's message, Trust, Not Technology, from his series, What Now? What Next? When the world gets turned upside down, it becomes really obvious how much people need Jesus. The anger, the hostility, the division, it's devastating. So the question is how do we tell people about the peace only Jesus offers? Where do we start? In this brand new teaching from Chip, he challenges us to authentically live out our faith by identifying six biblical mindsets we have to adopt. When you invest time in this series, you'll learn what it means to be a genuine Christian in a world that's crumbling all around us. To listen to this entire series, What Now? What Next?

Making Disciples in a Disrupted World, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to get plugged in. Well Chip, as you've been teaching this series, you know, I can't help but think that there are people out there who feel maybe a bit helpless. They don't lead major companies or pastor large churches. And maybe you're thinking, I'm not in a prominent position to make a major change.

So what can they do? Well Dave, that's really true. But I will tell you, there was a lady named Anna about this time of year who went into the temple and fasted and prayed. And it seemed that God valued her so greatly that she actually got to be one of the first people to see the baby Jesus. For reasons I don't understand, there's something about God finding people that are dependent, whose focus is on trusting Him evidenced by prayer, intercessory prayer, prayers from the heart, pleading with God, writing down specific prayers and addressing specific issues and not just saying, Lord, make things better. And right now, as people are challenged with that, I want to challenge fellow believers, let's really pray. One of the resources that has helped me is our prayer journal. And I don't mean that you have to write down three or four or five pages. I personally just take the biggest, heaviest burdens or concerns and I put a little box in a corner and then I turn it into a request.

Lord, I'm so concerned about, but now I'm asking you, will you please? And I'm really specific and then I write that down. And when I get discouraged and we all get discouraged from time to time, I open my prayer journal and I see a lot of check marks with dates.

Now some of them, there's no check mark. God hasn't answered yet, but I will tell you, the practice of writing my prayers and reviewing them has made it more clear and I've seen God's hand and I would invite our listeners to let's make a difference. And God says the effective prayer of a righteous man or a righteous woman accomplishes much.

Let's do it. Thanks, Chip. We have a great resource designed to help you spend more intentional time with God. It's a beautiful compact notebook.

This tool is full of meaningful verses, popular quotes and song lyrics with plenty of space for journaling. Now these notebooks also make perfect gifts, especially with Christmas just around the corner. For more great Christmas gift ideas, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.

Express shipping is available so don't wait. Again, that's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap special offers. As we close, let me remind you of an easy way to listen to our extended teaching podcast. Hear Chip anytime on Amazon's Alexa Echo and Echo Dot. Just say, Alexa, open Living on the Edge and you'll hear that day's extended teaching anytime you want. Well, for Chip and everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.