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Piercing the Darkness - Our Love: How God Works Through Us, Part 2

Living on the Edge / Chip Ingram
The Truth Network Radio
November 19, 2024 12:00 am

Piercing the Darkness - Our Love: How God Works Through Us, Part 2

Living on the Edge / Chip Ingram

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November 19, 2024 12:00 am

We live in a very me-centered world. It’s all about what I want when I want it and what everyone else can do for me. In this program, Chip talks about the appeal and benefits of a Jesus-centered life. Learn why the counterintuitive path that Christ leads us down actually delivers the joy, peace, and love that we all long for.

Main Points

Introduction:

  • When Jesus speaks of love the issues is not emotions, intentions, or feelings; it’s a question of loyalty. - 1 John 2:15-17

The Principle:

  • God must work deeply “in” you before He works significantly “through” you.

  1. First, let God work deeply “in” you. -- Hebrews 12:1-3
  2. Second, let God work powerfully “through” you. -- Nehemiah 1-6

Summary:

We are “the Nehemiah’s” of our day. Our sacrifices and tribulations to pierce the darkness will seem so small when we look back from eternity.

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About Chip Ingram

Chip Ingram’s passion is helping Christians really live like Christians. As a pastor, author, and teacher for more than three decades, Chip has helped believers around the world move from spiritual spectators to healthy, authentic disciples of Jesus by living out God’s truth in their lives and relationships in transformational ways.

About Living on the Edge

Living on the Edge exists to help Christians live like Christians. Established in 1995 as the radio ministry of pastor and author Chip Ingram, God has since grown it into a global discipleship ministry. Living on the Edge provides Biblical teaching and discipleship resources that challenge and equip spiritually hungry Christians all over the world to become mature disciples of Jesus.

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Let's face it, we live in a very me-centered world. It's all about what I want, when I want it, and what everyone else can do for me.

Jesus has a better way. It is counterintuitive, but it delivers the joy and the peace and the love that we all long for. And that's what we'll talk about today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry motivating Christians to live like Christians.

Well, in just a minute, Chip will wrap up his newest series, Piercing the Darkness. Now, last time he was in Hebrews chapter 12, explaining the principle of God needing to first do a transformative work in us before he can then work through us. He'll continue unpacking that concept for us right now as he begins the second half of his message. So if you have a Bible, open now to Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 2. Fix your eyes on Jesus. In other words, pursue intimacy with Jesus as your number one priority. This is Jesus, the one that has my word, the one who does my will.

That's family. The people who don't, aren't. He that keeps my commands is the one who loves me. And then the promise is, and I will love him or love her, and then I will disclose myself. We get it all too complicated. Just obey what God shows you for where you're at right now, and he'll show you what's next. But you can't get direction and you can't get to know him if you don't take him up on the fact that he said the way he's going to create new life and sustain new life and transform us is taking the Spirit of God and the written word and making it the living word and putting it inside of you in a way in the context of relationships where little by little, and it takes time, and it's a process, and he will make you over time more and more and more like Jesus.

And here's the weird thing. The more you're like Jesus, the more people like you, right? You're a kind person. You're a forgiving person.

You're an understanding person. You're an other-centered person. You have more friends. You have more joy. The more you give your life away, actually the more you get.

But it's really hard to do, isn't it? I want my way. My flesh says if I had that or if I accomplished that or if, if, if. I got news for you. I've been around a while now.

Everyone keeps reminding me the last week. St. Francis was right. He said, Lord, all divine master grant that I might seek to console instead of to be consoled, that I might seek to love instead of be loved, that I might seek to give instead of receive. For in giving, he says, we receive, in pardoning we are pardoned, and in dying we're born again to eternal life.

This paradigm is hard and upstream, but it's the road to life. And then he says, rest in his direction. He says, fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author. It's a picture of someone with a machete blazing through a forest.

The word is pioneer, the one who blazes the trail, the trailblazer. Remember what he said there? Just follow me. Just do what I do. Respond to evil the way I respond to evil. Respond to people the way I respond to people. Speak the way I speak. Drive your car as though I'm inside of you. Do your job as though we're showing up together and I'm inside of you.

I want the world to see who I really am through you. And so he says, I'm the author, and then he's also the last, the completer or the finisher. He's got your front and he's got your back. He'll provide for you and he'll protect you. And all he says is, just stay on the path. He's the author and perfecter of your faith. And then remember that the cross always precedes the crown. Having an eternal perspective changes everything and it's really hard to maintain. And that's part of why God wants us in his word.

I mean, left to ourself, right? I remember when I was at that little church with 35 people and we finally grew to 450 and I was just antsy, antsy, antsy. I want to do something. I want to do something. I want to do something. I want to go somewhere.

I want to make a difference. And I made a five-year commitment. So like year six, God, God, God, where do I go? Where do I go? Year seven, God, God, God, where do I go?

Where do I go? Finally God said, if you just keep at that, you're going to be here for a very long time. Can I tell you, if you can't be content where you are with what you have today, you will never be content anywhere else with having more than you have today. And by the way, if you're thinking, well, I'm single, I can't be content until I find that person.

Marriage is a very wonderful thing, but it's way overrated in our culture. I'm serious. There's a real gift of singleness.

And by the way, if you're a married person and you have a good friend who's single, stop trying to set them up. No, I'm serious. You know what you're saying? Oh, you're not complete.

You know, you don't have it right. You could never be happy single. There's a lot of people very happy single and there's a lot of people very unhappy married.

Getting married can't make you happy and staying single can't make you sad. In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand are pleasures forever. Jesus has created this world in such a way as one of the great ancients said, there is a vacuum in your heart and my heart that can never be filled apart from a relationship with Jesus. And you can know Him and be saved and be a part of His family, but really be looking for purpose and meaning elsewhere and to other things. And I will tell you, you will live one frustrated life. The most miserable people in the world are people that actually really know Jesus. And God is pulling them this way in their own flesh and their own desires and trying to find fulfillment over here.

And you have this lack of peace nearly all the time. And you're so afraid to go all in, so afraid to trust God. Yeah, He only made the universe. I mean, what could He do for you? He only knows the future backward and forward. He only uniquely made you in your mother's womb with your personality and your background. I mean, what could He ever know that could be really good for you, right? I mean, you know better or the Internet knows better.

I mean, Google it. See, when God says, I want you to love Me with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength, what He's really saying is, I want you to be loyal to Me above everything and everyone else. And His motivation is because I love you.

We love because He first loved us and not just I love you, but I have the best for you. Every command I have or when it's swimming upstream or when it seems so hard or so challenging, that just happens to be the path. But that's where there's life. Meet a good athlete, a good artist, a good musician. I mean, a really great one. They were practicing when no one else practiced.

They were working out when no one else cared. You can have gift and you can have talent. The great, great people are people who pay a tremendous price and position themselves with delayed gratification to get something that most people aren't willing to. And that is what He's saying here. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Refuse to give up and remember that before, again, the athletic metaphor, you know, it was just a little wreath for them but a lot of prestige. Before you get that, there's the cross. There's sacrifice.

And all I want to tell you is that's normal. We've been so bombarded with this click, click, now, now, get, get, me, me. That we think that if we don't get satisfaction and happiness and meaning and everything, I mean like that, life doesn't work that way. And if you believe that, you'll get disillusioned with God. And what you'll find if you look in the mirror is that who you really worship, regardless of what you say about Jesus or sing some songs, who you end up really worshiping is you. Me, my needs, my agenda, my fulfillment, Jesus helped me. When Jesus doesn't work out the way I want it to work out in my job, if it doesn't work out the time that I want it to work out, if we can't do this, if I don't get this, if people don't say this about me, well, Jesus, I got news for you. You're not the center of the universe and neither am I. He is.

And he made it. And what he's invited us to do is follow him, not make him some guru or genie to make our lives work out the way that we think they ought to work out. Because the fact of the matter is it doesn't work that way.

And if we would ever get what we really want, you'd be so surprised how negative that would be. For whatever reason, I started, I think, my freshman year of college journaling. So I don't know. I've got a shelf in my closet.

I maybe have 50, 60, 70 journals of all the years. And, you know, some of them, oh, God, if you would please, if you would please, if you would just, if you would just, if you would just change your heart, if, you know, gosh, that girl, that girl, that girl, that girl, now 25, 30, 40 years later, God, thank you, thank you, thank you that you didn't change her heart. I remember when, you know, we were in that little, the little town, oh, God, God, God, would you please take me someplace cutting edge, someplace cutting edge in a church from Fremont called and, you know, this, this, this, this, oh, no, no, no, it didn't work out, it didn't work out, I got to stand in this donkey little house.

And six months later, Santa Cruz called. God's got your best in mind. He knows what he's doing. You have a great cloud of witnesses. Run the race with endurance. Get rid of, declutter anything, anyone that is holding you back or weighing you down and run your race with endurance, fixing your eyes on the person of Jesus and not on problems or people or circumstance.

And then notice, I love this last part, adjust your expectations. Consider him who endured such hostility of sinners against himself. If it was hard and difficult and painful and dangerous for Jesus, do you think it's going to be easier for you? Jesus said to his disciples, if they hated me, they're going to hate you. If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. And then he did this big deal that we, I don't hear a lot of people wanting this, blessed are you, blessed, happy, rewarded God's favor on you when you're persecuted for my sake.

When you stand up for me, when you are loving and kind and give good for evil, when you're willing to say, no, no, no, excuse me. I know this isn't politically correct in this meeting. That's wrong. Okay? We don't kill little babies and we don't kill young kids and we don't kill old people. That's wrong.

And then you get canceled and then they don't invite you to stuff. Blessed are you. God must work deeply in us before he will work significantly through us.

The second, let God work powerfully through you. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get back to his message in just a minute. You know, we love to hear how you're deepening your relationship with God as you study his Word with us. But another way we want to support you in that is through our free resource called Daily Discipleship with Chip.

Let me encourage you to stick around after this message as Chip will tell you more about it and how to sign up. But for now, let's get back to the remainder of his talk. My favorite Old Testament character is a businessman. It's about 445 B.C. He is the cup bearer to the king. His name is Nehemiah. And the whole nation of Israel, which is such a picture for us, decided we'll do life our way. God says, you know, okay, do your thing.

Knock yourself out. For 70 years, God promised judgment. And so they end up in Babylon. They end up worshipping idols. They get to the point where a lot of their kids can't even speak Hebrew anymore.

And so different people take a stab at trying to pull things back together. And Nehemiah finds himself in the Silicon Valley of this world, a place of great power, a place of great wealth. He wasn't a prophet. He wasn't a king. He wasn't a religious guy. He wasn't a scribe. He was by all practical measures, in our words, he's a strategic businessman.

Yes, the cup bearer would taste the wine and eat the food before he gave it to the king so he wouldn't be assassinated. But it meant he was next to the king. It meant he lived a life of luxury.

It meant he was a one percenter or a half of the one percent, a lot like many, many of us. And God strategically placed him next to the most powerful person in the world, like some of you are placed strategically in the most powerful companies in the world, which are far more powerful than most countries in the world. And you guys are creating amazing, amazing, amazing things.

Some for good and some really used for evil. And for whatever reason, you're sitting, hearing God's word right now. And long before there was AI, God knows how everything works together. And he decided that he would give you the brains and the opportunity and the job with the network and the wealth and the influence that you have because he wants you to change the world. You're the answer.

You're the light. But there's a process for God to work through you. And the reason I like Nehemiah so much is first of all he's a regular guy and the scripture, you know, I had never opened it until I was 18. But when I just read through it all and I just found, gosh, fishermen and prostitutes and, you know, terrorists. These are the people God uses.

I got really excited. I really did, you know, Moses, you know, the man who gave us the law. He killed somebody.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Paul, the great apostle. He killed some people. I thought, you know, I haven't even killed anybody. I think God could use me.

Fishermen, people with anger management issues, people from dysfunctional families, people without much education. This book is a book and world history is a history of ordinary people being used in extraordinary ways by the power of God to extend exceeding grace to undeserving recipients. And you're one of those ordinary people in very significant places. And so the process, if you read the first six chapters of Nehemiah, is first and foremost, he had a dislocated heart. He's living in the lap of luxury. His life works.

He's not a refugee. He's wealthy, lives in a palace, has great food. And when he hears that the walls are broken down, temple worship hasn't been restored, the gates are burned, there's not even worship of Yahweh, the one and only God, when he hears it, he stops, he weeps, he fasts, and he prays. He has a dislocated heart. His heart is for God's agenda, God's purposes around the world.

Where's yours? Second thing is instead of using all of his natural talents and saying, great, I'm smart, I've got money, I've got connections, I'm going to make this happen, that's not what he does. He prays one of the most amazing prayers, oh God, the all-powerful, the all-knowing, the mighty God, the loving God, the covenant-keeping God, we, me and my fathers have sinned greatly against you. And he has a broken spirit. And the scripture says that a broken spirit and a contrite heart of God you will never despise. When God can find a regular man or a regular woman or a student who looks at the situation in your school or your company or in families or in our world and instead of blaming or complaining, when it breaks your heart and you cry out and ask him to do something great, to cause there to be a breakthrough, to bring about change, ask yourself what makes you so mad you want to punch a wall and what makes you so sad that you want to cry. And your passions and your vision from God will probably be very close to one of those. Mine is when I see Christians not living like Christians and churches being places of hypocrisy, it makes me so mad I get livid.

And when I see Christians in the beauty of Christ and loving people and helping the poor and caring for one another and doing authentic community and giving their resources and their money and dreaming dreams and skills to transform the world, I just go off in levels you can't even imagine of joy. So that's what God called me to do. I had people ask me, when are you going to retire? Like from what? From doing what I love?

From doing what God made me to do? I may get slower. I may get where the guy doesn't have it anymore.

Can we just get somebody else? Okay. I'm busy. And I got this little thing called time. And whatever I do or you do in this little thing called time, I got news for you people. The implications are forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. If you want to think about real reward and real impact, you start laying aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily distracts you and you get on board with, I want to do what this Jesus is doing because he's going to reign and he's going to reward and there is a real heaven and a new earth and a perfect world and my salvation is based totally on the gift of his work on the cross and resurrection.

I've received that. But my long-term eternity qualitatively gets really impacted. You ever think about that?

It gets really impacted by what you do now. And not only that, but is there anything more joyful or more amazing than getting to be a part of watching someone's life change? Watching people who don't have fresh water have water and live?

Have people with no food who get cared for? People that don't know Jesus and find him? Is there anything more wonderful than being a part of something that transforms cultures and communities and churches and nations? I mean, that's part of why you love to work. From the very beginning, we were to co-labor and co-create with God.

And so he has this broken spirit and then he takes a radical step of faith. He steps out and says, hey, King, can I leave and go help? You can leave your good job. You can leave your money. You can leave your role.

Yeah, I'll be back in 12 years or so. And he leaves and he rolls up his sleeves and he develops a strategic plan because he's got this kind of gifts and he organizes people that for 70 years can't get anything going and he organizes them and he casts a vision and he uses administrative skills and he's a great leader. And bam, 52 days later, a wall is built and then worship starts.

And then this is what leaders do. They blaze a trail and then pretty soon people go, hey, I think this could work. You think this could work? I think it could work. Well, let's do it, okay. We didn't believe it would happen before.

We can never see this happen at our company or at our neighborhood. Really? And by the way, don't think great charismatic personality. Leaders are people of influence.

Leaders are people who do things and say things and literally blaze a trail that other people go, hey, would you like to help? And neighborhoods change. What's on your heart?

What step could you take? And then he makes a personal commitment and he realizes that, you know, the world's big. This is what I'm going to do with my life. And then it usually gets much harder before it gets easier. And he has a courageous soul.

He refuses to give up. And I know what I've shared may inspire some or scare others, but here's what I will tell you with absolute certainty now that I'm older. I'm not old. I'm not old. Old is when you start looking in the rearview mirror and talking about stories of what you used to do. Old is when you talk about what you can't do. Old is about a mindset.

Older is when your body doesn't work quite so well and your mind may not be quite as sharp, but you haven't lost the fire in your belly. The summary is this. We are the Nehemiahs of our day and our sacrifices and tribulations to pierce the darkness will seem very, very small when we look back from eternity. None of you will be with Jesus and look in the rearview mirror about your time on earth and go, oh, I wish I wouldn't have sacrificed so much. It'll be like, oh, you'll have a Schindler's List moment. And if you know the story, he bought Jews out of the Holocaust so they won't be killed. And at the end of the movie that tells the story, he has a gold pocket watch that was precious.

And he looked at it and he thought to himself, how many more people could I have saved if I would have sold this watch? You'll never have regrets of being a radical, committed follower of loving people and loving God. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, our love, how God works through us, is from our series, Piercing the Darkness. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. The purpose of light is to illuminate and make things visible.

It's the opposite of darkness, right? Through this series, we got a better understanding of our call as followers of Jesus to be a light in this dark world. We pray you learned how the life Jesus modeled while on earth, along with the ideas of hope, faith, and love he taught, empowers all of us to be difference makers and pierce through the darkness we see all around us.

Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any part of this series at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Well, Chip's joined me in studio now, and Chip, those who listen to you regularly know that Romans 12 is one of your favorite passages. It's rich with foundational truth vital to every believer, so take a minute, if you would, and talk about a key study we've developed to help our listeners grasp the power of this chapter, too. Well, for the last several years, you know, Dave, that we've produced a resource called Daily Discipleship with Chip. It's a free video tool where our listeners and I study the Bible together for 20 minutes. I do 10 minutes by way of video in a one-on-one mentoring environment, and then I ask them to take another 10 minutes on their own to study. And I've done a number of these, and I took just classic core passages that I know are just instrumental in every believer really growing in Christ. Well, as we were preparing these, I couldn't not do one on Romans chapter 12, because it talks about what it looks like to be truly spiritual, to be a authentic follower of Jesus Christ. So what I want to invite our listeners to is to join me. It's a little bit longer.

It's actually 17 days. But as you do this study, True Spirituality, How to Become a Romans 12 Christian, I believe it'll help you like never before be the man or the woman that God really wants you to be. Great encouragement, Chip.

To sign up for this free video resource, go to livingontheedge.org. We want to see you grow in your faith and be a Christian who really lives like a Christian. And this daily discipleship series from Romans chapter 12 will help you get on the right path. For complete details, visit livingontheedge.org at listeners tap discipleship. Well, before we go, here again is Chip.

Thank you so much, Dave. As we wrap up the series, I just want to summarize a thought that I shared at the very end of today's teaching. We are the Nehemiahs of our day. The fact of the matter is, in every generation, God raises up people. And we can look back in Scripture or we look back in church history and we always think it's a celebrity. We always think it's someone that did some really big, great thing. But as you study their lives, what you find is they're ordinary people who started taking some baby steps right where they were and they made a difference. I wish you could read the thousands of emails that we get of people who take a step and they start a Bible study or they see special need kids and they say, hey, why don't we do something special for them and teach them how to ride horses and give them confidence?

Or someone who sees all these women that are struggling and single and find themselves with a baby and they say, why don't we just help this little group of women and let them know that they're loved? Here's my point. Light pierces the darkness.

But it's not some big thing out there. It's you and it's me in our private little world, your neighborhood, your local church, your coffee shop, where you work. It's you saying, I want to have a dream. God, dislocate my heart. You've gifted me. You've given me passions. Help me not get distracted.

Lord, free me from the Netflix mentality that every time I don't feel very good, I'll just watch something and become a passive observer of the life around me. God is calling ordinary people like you and me into your neighborhood, your workplace, your relationships, your family to say, you are my light. Live it out. Start small. Dream big.

Go really deep with just a few people and see that the mustard seed of that faith will penetrate and pierce the darkness of your world. You are the difference maker. And God wants to use you. He will use you.

Are you ready? Step out. Great challenge to close out this series, Chip. And I hope all of you know that as a staff, we're praying you'll boldly take that next step to be an authentic difference maker at work, at home, or in your community.

And if you have a powerful testimony of how God is working in your life, we'd love to hear it. Email us at chip at Living on the Edge dot org. That's chip at Living on the Edge dot o-r-g. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drewies saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. .
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-19 05:53:30 / 2024-11-19 06:05:28 / 12

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