Holy Ambition - Practice a Radical Faith, Part 1

If you've found yourself struggling lately with all the evil that is in the world, watching the news and getting so discouraged and wondering, God, why don't you do something?

Well, then today is a day that you don't want to miss. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouie, and the mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. We're in the middle of Chip's series, Holy Ambition, turning God-shaped dreams into reality.

As a quick reminder, after the teaching, Chip will share some deeper application to what we're about to hear, so be sure to stick around for that. Well, there's a lot to get to in this program, so let's join Chip now for his message, Practice a Radical Faith. God, always in history, is carrying out a plan to do great things through ordinary people who assume it can only happen through others, and the qualifications are very, very simple. He's looking for a man, a woman, whose heart is fully his, and when he finds a man, a woman, or a student, regardless of education, regardless of background, regardless of race, regardless of gender, if he finds that person in the midst of great need, he will shake and move all of heaven to resource them to stand in the gap and build up the wall and make a difference.

And we're on a multi-thousand year history of God doing that. There's a searchlight where the spirit of a living God who created all that there is, is looking for one man, one woman, one student, who would be willing to forsake all, and in probably trepidation and fear, step out and say, God, all I am and all I have is yours, and in my sphere of influence, the way you made me, I will do whatever you want me to do to stand in the gap and be your representative. And we've learned, as you open your notes, that there's three conditions we've looked at so far. The first one is, do you have a dislocated heart? And it really answers the question, I mean, do you care? I mean, can you get beyond your own world and your own needs to really care?

The second was a broken spirit and I got a lot of texts and a lot of emails of people who said, that hit me right between the eyes. Are you desperately dependent as evidenced by the behavior of talking to God and praying God-centered prayers that lead to gut-wrenchingly honest prayers that then have promise-centered prayers where you say, God, I can't do this, I'm only one person, but I'm going to ask you to do what only you can do. And now our model Nehemiah, this businessman who's in Persia, who God has placed in this city at this time with this platform, with this intelligence, with this influence and this affluence, and he's going to take a radical step of faith. We pick up the story in Nehemiah 1 and I put it in your notes so you can follow along. It's at the end where he ends his prayer and he says, oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayers of your servants who delight in revering your name. And here's his request. After four months of praying, God has revealed to Nehemiah, it's not an accident that I gave you this prestige and this position and this intelligence and this leadership in this city at this time in history.

I want you to be my man and go over there to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. And God has given him a plan as he's prayed and he's talked and you find his prayer starts out where he asks God personally and as you read this prayer carefully he says, the prayer of your servant. So he got a small group together and he's not in it alone. And we're going to learn in just a minute, he's going to walk into the king's presence and do something that if the king's in a bad mood, it will cost him his life. He will take a radical step of faith.

He'll put his life on the line to come out of his comfort zone and align with God's agenda. And so he asked God, give us success, give me favor in the presence of this man. I was the cup bearer to the king.

It was the month of Nisan, that's about April, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes of Persia when wine was brought before him and I took the wine and I gave it to the king and I had not been sad in his presence before. So the king asked me, why does your face look so sad when you're not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart. I was very much afraid but do you understand what he did? In the culture of this time, if you're sad before the king, if he's having a bad day, it's your last day.

Get him out of here, get me someone new. Everyone's life revolved around making the king happy. But Nehemiah realized, I will get his attention, I build a relationship, this is what God led me to do and he's going to ask me a question and I hope he's having a really good day, God. And I want you to just notice in your notes, will you circle the word but? I was very much afraid but. I want to suggest that the greatest thing that have ever happened on the face of the earth by God's people are by people who are absolutely terrified and afraid of what they're about to do but they don't let the fear stop them.

They don't let the fear of finances, they don't let the fear of rejection, they don't let the fear of their physical life and they do what God shows them even though they're afraid. So as we go through this message, if it brings up things in your heart that make you feel afraid, you're in very good company. But I said to the king, may the king live forever, a little PR never hurts. Why should not my face look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? And the king respects him and he gets his attention and the king says, well, what is it that you want? And then I prayed to the God of heaven, I think this is one of those real quick ones in his heart. And I answered the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it. Then the king with the queen sitting beside him asked me, well, how long will your journey take and when will you get back?

And it pleased the king to send me, so I set a time. He had a dislocated heart, he cared. He didn't have a knee jerk reaction of just launching into something for four months. He prays individually, he gets a small group, he has a broken spirit. And now he takes a radical step of faith and here's my definition of a radical step of faith. This is the kind that God supports.

It's a radical step of faith is choosing to step out to fulfill God's clearly defined will at great personal risk and sacrifice. This isn't some wild thought you get, this is God's clearly defined will. Nehemiah knew rebuilding Jerusalem, the promises of God, the people of God, it's clearly defined will. We know it's God's will for poor people to get loved, for lost people to hear the gospel. We know the gospel is to go to all the world. We know it's God's will for fathers to love their families. We know it's God's will for moms to be mentored and know how to take care of their kids. We know it's God's will for single people to discover their gifts and live pure lives and be loved and encouraged. But there's a lot of things that are clearly defined will of God. We know it's God's will for the gospel to cross ethnic barriers and people be loved who've never heard about Christ. And a radical step of faith is choosing to take a step that's God's clearly defined will, but here's the deal, at great personal risk, in other words it might get really dangerous, and second, it might really cost sacrifice. And when you read all through scripture and when you read all through church history, what you find is when you get in any church where God is working, you'll find people who've taken a radical step of faith. And by the way, they usually do it reluctantly.

I mean, we get this idea that they're superstars and they have more faith and they know so much more than we do. I mean, remember Moses? Like he was really up for the job, you know, send someone else, send someone else.

Esther, it was not me please, not me please. I was teaching in Jordan on spiritual warfare and that season we brought about 150 leaders from 26 Arab countries and they were the head of whole denominations and campus crusade and people that were born again had personal relationship with Christ, even from some groups that you would think, really? Yeah. And so I was teaching through the invisible war and after each time we would teach it, then we would translate it simultaneously and then we'd have Q&A to contextualize it to Jordan or Iraq or different countries and Pastor Ronnie, who spoke excellent English, was a pastor in Iraq and we got to become friends and he needed some resources and I gave him a book and he came back two days later and he had the first third of the book translated. And he said, can I use this? I said, are you kidding me?

Just tell me what you need, I'll send you whatever. And then we got to talk one day and he talked about what it was like to have the terrorists come and shoot bullets and how one day, in light of that, he and his wife and all three kids got underneath the bed and he said for 20 minutes, it was just bullets, bullets, bullets, bullets, and it finally got quiet, waited about a half hour and went to the entrance of the church. It was connected to a bunch of shops and homes and he said there was six bodies laying in front of my door and we were just shaking. I mean, my kids were shaking and we didn't leave the house for about two and a half days. The internet would only come up for an hour or two a day and he talked about how afraid he was and then how, what am I going to do?

Am I going to have the courage to open services for Sunday? And he said, so I did and no one died and we did that and I thought about what a radical step of faith. And then later in the day, we got talking and I said, Ronnie, what's the biggest challenge you've had? He said, well, remember the name Zakari?

He was the number two guy under Saddam Hussein. He lived in the town where Pastor Ronnie was a pastor. And a couple months earlier, he ordered all the cross to come down from the church, told people between four and six in the afternoon, if anyone goes out on the streets, you'd be killed.

And he kind of just took over the town. And he said, you know, I didn't want to take down the cross and I was willing to die for my savior, but he said they were going to shoot a rocket in the church and there's all these people. That is not a good testimony for your church and all these innocent people to die. So I took the cross down from the church and then early one morning, I was just, you know, spending time with the Lord and as I spend time with the Lord reading, I had the clearest prompting from God, Ronnie, put the cross back up today. Today's the day.

I want you to do it at 4.30. He said, I really argued with the Lord. And I said, but at 4.30, I took a step ladder because I had to climb up to the, on top of the roof. And here's Pastor Ronnie with a cross and a step ladder. And he leans it against the church and he's just thinking, some sniper, someone's just going to mow me down to set an example. He leans a step ladder up, goes to the church, puts the cross on top, comes down, goes home, isn't killed.

And the morning news, the very next day, Zakari is taken out by a rocket. See, when we talk about a radical step of faith, if you're not careful, you can start thinking it's like, oh, I'm taking a big step with my 401k or if I do this, my business or relationships might be changed a little bit or I might not be as near to some of my family or friends or my grandkids or boy, if I took this radical step of faith, I might have to change vocations. And we start making those things a radical step of faith, which they are in our culture. But when you rub up against people that are willing to give their life for the gospel of Christ, I will tell you, it recalibrates what it means to follow Jesus.

That's what Nehemiah did. And when God finds people who are willing, fearfully, to take that step, he does revolutions. He does revolutions in cities that where only 2 to 5% of the people even go to church, in places where people are hardened and think that Christians are narrow, bigoted, anti-intellectual, intolerant people. And he can change people in such dramatic revolutionary ways that those farthest from Christ would say, what do you all have?

Here's the question. How do you get that kind of faith? This isn't mustering it up.

This isn't getting on some emotional high and stepping out and doing something really stupid. You better do what God tells you to do when he tells you to do it, how he tells you to do it as he leads you. That's a radical step of faith. And I'm going to ask you, will you please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 9? We're going to look at some verses that as you look at them, Jesus is going to describe and teach specifically how you, an ordinary person, and me, ordinary person, can actually develop a radical faith. And so there's four things you need to remember in order to develop a radical faith. And the first one is by remembering what faith is and faith is not. Hebrews 11 one says, now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. In other words, faith has to do with what you can't see. Faith isn't just all logic.

It's based on facts. But it's not emotion. So often we think faith is, okay, oh God, I'm going to try, try, try to have this. Faith may have emotions or no emotions. Faith is being what?

Assured, certain of what you can't see. Faith is nothing more or nothing less than trusting in the character and the promises of God to the point that you act whether you feel like it or not. That's what faith is. Old Testament example.

God takes his people out of bondage, right? Egypt, they go into the wilderness. Moses is their leader. They have a lot to learn. They get the Ten Commandments. But now they need to learn to trust him. What is the very first thing that God does?

What's the very first test? Is will you provide for me? I mean, they're out in this wilderness. There's desert. There's two, three million people and they're thinking what are we going to eat? And so manna comes in the morning, right? And God tells them very specifically now, only take enough for today. Translation, have faith.

Trust me that I'll bring some tomorrow. So the first few days, what do people do? Well, you know, he says take one jar, one omer. And so what do they do? Some of the people, you know, they're not looking.

They put three or four jars aside and they wake up the next day and there's maggots in it. And God said no, no, you don't understand. You don't get faith for next day, next month. You don't have to fear if you do this what will happen thirty days from now. You don't have to fear what's going to happen in a year. You don't have to take a, he says there is no grace in hypothetical futures.

I will give you whatever you need today. Trust me. And then when it got to be the Sabbath, what was it?

It was illogical. Again, he wanted to show take two because tomorrow you're going to rest. I'm going to show you that I'm so powerful, so faithful, so good, so sovereign that you can get more done in six days than most people can in seven. And the whole point of the Sabbath and the whole point of collecting manna was can I trust God to provide for me?

Am I dependent? Do I look to Him as my source? The New Testament equivalent is Jesus talking about money. Jesus talked about money more than heaven and hell combined. And Jesus didn't need our money then nor now.

So why? Why does He talk about money, money, money? Because Jesus says there's really only two gods. The two gods are not God and Satan. The two gods are God and money. You will worship either money or God. You will either be self-dependent and believe that with enough money it will create security. With enough money you can look a certain way. With enough money you can have certain things that will make you a someone.

But all your significant security, power, issues, we think the right job, the right money. Now Satan will be a part of trying to get you to buy that lie. And so the whole point of New Testament giving is to recognize every time we come together I give the first portion of all that God's given me so I realize this is yours, manna. And then as I grow I start giving proportionately more percentages as God blesses because I understand that life's about eternity. So Jesus taught that to free our heart from greed and so that's why especially in America a lot of people go to church regularly. A lot of people wish God would intervene and answer their prayers and they're disobedient in the most basic things. If God doesn't have your money he doesn't have your heart. That's Jesus. Just period.

What it reveals is you don't trust him. I mean I can sing songs and you know I'm with you here. I didn't grow up in the church. I mean when I went to church it was like normal days, a dollar, feeling kind of good, five, ooey gooey spiritual experience. I just thought I'm really going to bless the God of heaven.

Here's a 20. I'm serious. I mean I didn't know. I remember beginning to read the scriptures about this is his money, not yours. He gave you the brains. He gave you the job. You want what percent? I mean I just thought.

The first time I heard that I was like are you on drugs? I mean I'm not making it now and you want me to give the chip. Here's the issue. I want you to trust me. And so Therese and I learned to do that. And of course you know the rest is history. But for many that's a radical step of faith. And then what you see is you see God's supply and you see the supernatural starting to work.

So the first thing you have to remember about radical step of faith is what faith is and what it's not. It's not emotional to obey God. It's just God is good. God's promises are true. He said he'll meet all my needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. He said that he's kind.

He's loving. So I can trust him. The second thing you need to remember is how deeply God values our faith.

Hebrews 11 6. Without faith it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe.

Notice the two things. That he exists and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God is not impressed with your morality. He's not impressed with your knowledge. And he's not impressed with ministry success. The number one agenda that God has for you and for me is that you trust him.

That's the deal. I mean if you wonder what's God doing in my life. See it's gotten warped and we have sort of changed the whole deal to say God will you work my life out. God I've got a problem in my marriage. God I'm single and I want to be married. God I've got a problem in my finances.

God I need a job. And oh God oh God oh God if I go to church if I try this I do this maybe I do that well I'll read the Bible a little bit. And there's this works mentality and you totally missed the point. The whole point of the difficulties and the challenges in your life what the Spirit of God is trying to get you to ask is what would it look like to trust God in this situation? That's the question.

You ought to write that one down. What would it look like to trust God in this difficult marriage? What would it look like to trust God with a great attitude without a job? What would it look like to trust God to deal with this addiction? What would it look like to trust God to say no to this relationship? What would it look like to trust God to take a step of faith and launch a ministry?

What would it look like you know I can't tell you how many people end up in negative, terrible, painful, ungodly relationships because they want to pick out who they date or after a difficult divorce they are so desperate I've got to find someone instead of what would it look like to trust God to make me the woman I need to be or the man I need to be and let God bring that person at the right time the right way. What pleases God is not your religious activity. Without faith it's impossible to please Him and by the way now jot this under those notes where there is no risk there is no faith period.

We've turned this whole thing into a morality play I'm trying to be good I'm trying to be good I'm trying to be good when you step out in faith God by His Spirit will make you good but the goal is not to be good the goal is to trust Him. Tipp will join us here in studio with his application in just a minute you've been listening to the first part of his message practice a radical faith from his series holy ambition turning God shaped dreams into reality. Now you may be asking yourself what does it mean to have a holy ambition those two words seem to be contradictory as we'll understand through Chip's teaching God's called us to be both holy and ambitious through the biblical story of Nehemiah Chip unpacks how God develops unique passions and desires in us so that he can then work through us discover how you can be used by God to accomplish the extraordinary.

Now if you missed any part of our series holy ambition the Chip Ingram map is a great way to catch up any time. Well our Bible teacher Chip Ingram is with me now and Chip this idea of turning our God shaped dreams into a reality is really near and dear to your heart. Take a minute and share why this series is special to you would you and maybe what you're hoping our listeners will learn from this teaching. Well Dave it's near and dear to my heart because out of this series was the very first book that I ever wrote holy ambition was something I wrestled with a lot of my heart Dave, you know, I had these these dreams and a heart to reach a whole city and the first one was a little town of about 3,000 people and then God moved me to Santa Cruz and it was like how could we reach like 200,000 people and and I had this this tension between Lord am I just arrogant or these dreams from you and as I studied the book of Nehemiah, I saw that this very regular person was put in a place where he had this ambition for God and Dave I just can't tell you like the lights came on and I realized that's for all of us whether we're a pastor or missionary or even more business people with leadership skills. It's not wrong to be ambitious.

It's wrong to be selfishly ambitious, but it's very right to have a holy ambition for God and what I realized that there's some people that feel like, you know, God could never use me and there's other people who have this idea. Oh, I think God's speaking to me but oh that would take a lot of money and a lot of time and probably someone way smarter than me and what came out of this series was a book that for the last 20 years has helped ordinary people dream God inspired dreams and move them from a thought to a reality and we're going to share some of those stories and I think it's going to be a series that regardless where people are at, we all have this deep desire to be used by God to make a difference, especially in the kind of world that we're living in today. So Dave, could you take just a minute and tell people how to get this book?

Be glad to Chip. To order the newest edition of Holy Ambition, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Through this resource, Chip will walk through a step-by-step process to turn your dreams and good intentions into a God-infused reality. Now during this series, we've discounted this latest edition of Chip's book, so order yours today.

Simply go to livingontheedge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap special offers. With that, Chip, let's get to your application for this message. You know, as you listen to today's program, I want to ask you a question. When's the last time you really thought clearly about how important faith is? Not just faith, but a radical faith. You know, there's certain things you know without a doubt are God's will for you to do, but it takes faith, which involves risk, to step out and do them.

I just want to ask you, what went through your mind as you heard today's teaching? What did God bring to your mind that you said to yourself within, you know, I'm not living by faith. God values faith. What God wants more than anything else is for me to trust Him. Well, the next question becomes, wow, how do I do that? How do I grow my faith? What's it going to look like? I hope you'll be with us for our next broadcast because we're going to walk through a process where we will learn exactly how Jesus developed faith in His disciples.

And you know what? If you're a Christian, you are a disciple, you're a follower, and He wants to develop your faith. He wants to give you courage and strength to step out in areas that in your heart you know He wants you to, but you're afraid.

God can and will work in you. Don't miss our next broadcast. That's a great reminder, Chip. Thanks. Well, before we go, let me tell you about 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 Drouy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.