Be Strong and Courageous  - I Will Not Settle!: Confronting the Spirit of Cynicism, Part 1

Are you distraught or maybe just downright disgusted with what's happening in the culture and the church? Have you reached the point of saying, everything is so broken, why bother even trying to fix it? If that's you, I have a word for that.

It's called cynicism, and it is lethal, and it's a disease that any of us can catch. Let's learn how to break it. Stay with me. 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. Thanks for joining us as we begin winding down our latest series, Be Strong and Courageous, Psalms to Strengthen Your Faith and Conquer Your Fear. With these last couple of programs, Chip will shine a light on the contagious spiritual virus of cynicism, a harmful blend of doubt and passivity that eats away at our hope. So today we'll discover how to break out of that mindset and fully embrace our calling to be difference makers. So grab your Bible and go to Psalm 107 as we join Chip for his message, I Will Not Settle.

I was talking to a very what I've known to be godly man recently, a man that God has used in the past. And as we begin to discuss, he began to talk about, you know, I've just kind of lost my fire. I've kind of lost my passion.

I look at, you know, what's happening in the world and the church and academia and the media and the morals and the shift of cultures and some ideologies. And, you know, I'm just going to do the best I can, but I think it's too far gone. I just think it's too far gone, and I've basically said I'm going to, you know, just do the best I can in my little portion of the world. And as I sat there and talked to him, what I realized is fire was gone. His real hope was gone.

His belief that God is a supernatural God who is the God of Nehemiah and the God of Esther and, you know, the God of the Grahams and the God of Bill Brights and the God of the Wilberforces and the God of people all through history who have swam upstream, not just against the culture, but oftentimes up against sort of the prevailing cynicism of believers or followers that they just kind of settle. And the goal is I'm going to create my little world. I'm not going to make any waves. I'm not going to say too much. It's not worth it anyway.

Why go through all of that? There's some statistics that have been very, very disturbing, and they're not statistics. They're realities. And I don't say this in any kind of judgmental way. These are just facts. These are things that have happened over the last five to ten years.

Actually, some of the slide has been in the last couple decades. But as of today, the best research that I have read is about 41 percent of all people who would self-recognize as a born again follower of Jesus Christ do not attend any local expression of a church. So that's four out of ten. I understand churches have gone through rough times. I understand there's health issues. So don't hear that as some huge condemnation, but hear it as, wow, four out of every ten people that are followers of Jesus are not going to a local church anywhere. Thirty percent of the younger generation is now called nuns, no Christian, no religious affiliation at all. And there's a cynicism that there are so many things wrong that we just get overwhelmed. And so this is not a message of doom and gloom and why don't people get with the program. This is a message about how do we overcome the spirit of cynicism. And there's just, I mean, waves of discouragement. I mean, parents and grandparents that just, you know, I don't know what to do. I raise my kids like this and they don't walk with God now. I see the direction of my grandkids and there's just this cynicism or this little I call it subtle despair like, well, I mean, this is the way it is. I got news for you.

This is not the way it is. And I will tell you this. God is on his throne. God will work. God's promise to work. His promises will not be thwarted. And the issue is not God's willingness. In every era like this, and this has happened so many times through biblical history, through our history, and in the present day.

And what I want you to know is I would like you to declare with me we can't be bold and courageous unless we refuse to settle. And what I want you to know is you have to get a new view of God or a refreshed view of God and remember what he's like and what he's done. And my passage here is Psalm 107. There is a call.

There is a command to don't be silent. It is not enough to say, I love Jesus. I have my personal faith. I'm doing the best I can. I'm trying to be nice. I'm trying to be moral. I even read my Bible.

I even give a little money to the church or help some causes. That's not what it means in the days that we're living to be a follower of Jesus. He's calling out people to be warriors, difference makers, cutting edge. And you say to yourself, well, Chip, I just can't do that. Let me give you a word from God. Let me share with you a passage of Psalm 107. And it opens up with a command and it ends with a warning. Listen carefully.

And here's the command. Give thanks to the Lord. Why? For he is good. His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord. That's you and me.

Say this. Those he has redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west and north and south. In other words, God is calling us.

He's commanding us who are redeemed. Like the old song says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You can't be silent. I can't be silent. I can't have coffee shop conversations. I can't be at work.

I can't be taking my trash out and have a little conversation with my neighbor and they bring up some world event or some situation or how bad this is and just sort of smile and go, yeah, it is kind of rough. And of course, I'm a silent follower of Jesus. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Give thanks to the Lord. He's good. That's his character. He longs to bless. He longs to come in power. He wants to use you.

You can't be silent. If you want to jot a little note or put this into your phone, I read a book just a few months ago by Erwin Lutzer, a man who's been around a long time, formerly the pastor of Moody Church, prolific writer. He's still got unbelievable energy and had a chance, I was in North Carolina and I got to sit with him. He's got this perspective of life. He is passionate. He is focused and he has all this energy and I realized that he had taught like eight or nine sessions in a row in about four days and he had all this vitality and it just seems like he's been around a long time. I said, Dr. Lutzer, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? He goes, you know, actually this weekend, celebrated 80 years. I said, really? He goes, yeah, I got a brand new book coming out.

I've done all this research on what's happening in the culture, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and he started citing things. I got the book, I read it and I thought, this guy is more current than 90% of the pastors I know that are 40 and under. Why?

Why? He has refused to settle and that's my prayer for you, my prayer for me because we can be bold and we can be courageous when we give thanks that the Lord is good, when we begin to communicate, this is what he's done for me and then when we remember, this is who he is, this is what he does and so now the psalmist is going to eagerly tell us that he wants us to call for help, he wants other people to call for help, he wants to go into places that we think God would never care and he wants to rescue and he wants to forgive and he wants to restore and he wants to do it when people are ignorant, he wants to do it when they've willfully rebelled, he is this loving, powerful God that wants to bring about dynamic, supernatural change, not someday and not in the past but right now and this psalm, it's a bit of a long psalm but we're gonna go through it fairly quickly. The structure is four specific scenes. The spirit of God has taken David and he's gonna give him four snapshots and he's gonna talk about four different situations where people get rescued and where they were, how they respond and then how God responds and what I will tell you is you don't have to settle. God is doing today exactly what's in this passage.

Are you ready? Scene number one, God wants to rescue the wanderers, the people that are lost, the people without purpose. Follow along. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty and their lives ebbed away. In other words, they were desperate.

He's describing possibly the wandering of the wilderness but this particular Hebrew word isn't so much for that. It's more a picture of people that find themselves in life that are lost. What's my purpose?

My relationships aren't working out. I mean, why am I here? What's life all about? And in this particular case, they find themselves where little by little by little, their life is ebbing away.

They just come to the point where what's going on? I'm lost spiritually. I'm lost financially. I'm lost in my world.

I don't have a community. I'm discouraged, I'm depressed, I'm anxious. They're lost. And then they realize it. They realize their life is ebbing away.

What do I do? Notice what they did. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress and he led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. In other words, he gives them community. He gives them purpose. He rescues these lost people.

And then he says, here's the response I'm looking for. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and he fills the hungry with good things. And the thirsty and the hungry here, certainly there's a lot of physical application, but most of our lostness is spiritual hunger. We're spiritually thirsty. There's just people all around us like never before.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll get you back to our series, Be Strong and Courageous in just a minute. But first, if this teaching has ministered to you, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular financial support goes a long way to help us encourage pastors, create resources, and share Jesus with today's youth. Visit livingontheedge.org today to learn how to support us. Well, with that, here again is Chip.

I was reading an article about anxiety and depression and a high percentage either think about or have attempted suicide, and it's a wave that's happened in the last five to seven years. And this is a secular article. I'll never forget it. And he says, the root cause, and I'm reading this, I said, really? He says, the root cause is a lack of religion. And I'm thinking, where's this guy coming from? He says, once you remove religion, the higher purpose, the what's life all about, why you're here gets removed.

And if there's no true north, you have a whole generation of people, they may not have any religious affiliation, but that doesn't change the need of, this is true, I want to give my life to this. This matters. Someone cares about me. There's purpose in life.

There's a life now, there's a life later. And what God is saying here is that he longs to rescue the lost. He understands the hurt. And the key is when they cry out to him in their desperation and their trouble. And I want you to know today that God, when you find yourself in trouble, when you find yourself in distress, when you find yourself lost in any way for any reason, lost in your community, lost in relationships, lost in direction, cry out to God and be desperate. Lord, please show me what to do. I'll do whatever you want, but please give me direction. And he promises, I'll do it.

And then after you cry out and he does it, he goes, here's what I want you to do. I want you to give thanks to the Lord. I want you to praise him. I want you to declare to other people, this is what God has done for you. And see, what happens is, you may not know it, I read some other research, 70,000 people a day are coming to know Christ globally.

And now a lot of it is in Southeast Asia, India, Africa. But here, I will tell you, I've got relationships with a lot of young pastors. There are churches and God is working in amazing ways, even in America.

It doesn't make the news. Are there problems? A lot of problems. But see, when you find some people that are bold, that are telling, hey, Jesus saved me. We have a group of friends that we partner with and they go to places that, oh, that march against this or that atheist group or that museum over there where they're just taking all the things that America used to stand for and they're railing against it, they go to those places. And if it's a hot day, they might bring water or they'll spend time and they'll ask people about, you know, their lostness. Are you lonely? Everyone's lonely. What's your purpose in life? I don't know. I don't have one. What have you thought about in terms of relationships?

Do you have community? They just bring up spiritual conversations and then they say, you guys want a meal? And they befriend them. And they're not trying to get someone to pray a prayer. They actually care about the people and they invest in their lives. And then they've developed some places here in about 100 cities around the world where you can come and hang out and have a meal and talk with people and hear their story and you listen to their story and pretty soon they begin to ask, what's with you all?

Why do you care? And they begin to share about God coming to this planet, fully man, fully God, to love and to forgive and to restore and to find people that are wandering. So many of them are wandering. You know, it breaks my heart when I hear Christians and I'm sure they're well-meaning. It's like those people and they believe that and that lifestyle and that's terrible.

It's like they're the enemy. No, they're the deceived. Jesus' heart is, would you please care for them the way I care for them? You know, we didn't clean up our life before Jesus revealed his love to us. God wants us to help, to share, to care for those that are lost. And then he wants them to give him thanks and he wants them to say so. We have to be bold and courageous.

Are you ready for this? Does it really matter what people at work might say? Does it really matter if one of your neighbors is like, oh, he's a Christian, oh, oh. They actually believe that life in the womb is important but they're not political and they're not angry. They actually believe that the family system was designed by God and actually their marriage seems to work really well. They're not down on anybody.

In fact, they invite us over for dinner and they care for us and people are just longing to meet Christians who, are you ready, live like Christians. Scene number two, God longs to rescue those in bondage. Some sat in dark in the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, why? For they had rebelled against the words of God and they despised the counsel of the Most High so he subjected them to bitter labor.

They stumbled and there was no one to help. Says God wants to rescue people in bondage and whether that's the bondage of an addiction, bondage of bad decisions, whether it's the bondage of being oppressed in some way but he says in this particular case, lots of people are in bondage because they've rebelled against God. They've rebelled against his word. You say to live this way, I'm gonna live this way. You say do relationships like this, I'm gonna do them this way.

You say handle your money this way, I'm doing them this way. Forget it and there's consequences. Part of the judgment of God, if you will, the passive judgment of God is when I live my life or you live your life contrary to his word, he allows the consequences of that to happen not to punish us but to get our attention and then notice what happens to this group. He says they then cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. They got to the point there was no one to help them. They couldn't fix the relationship. They couldn't break the addiction. They couldn't get enough food. They couldn't get a good job. They found themselves desperate. They said I don't wanna do life God's way but in their desperation, and I've had this happen a lot in relationships with people, you know what, I've never believed. I don't know if there's a God or not but because my life is just absolutely imprisoned and they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness in the deepest gloom and he broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord. Here's the response. Why?

For his, here's our word again, unfailing love, steadfast, loyal, covenant love and his wonderful deeds for men for he breaks down the gates of bronze and he cuts through the bars of iron. I wish we knew each other better. I wish that we could, okay, I said it again, have coffee and I wish I could just hear your story. Like tell me your journey.

Tell me what's going on. Where are you at in life and where are you at with God? And then I'm sure because I meet a lot of people, you would probably tell me about some struggles and challenges and a brother or sister or someone with an addiction, a drug issue, a sexual addiction, all kind of different things and then I hope you would say, Chip, you seem a little bit older than me which is probably gonna be true. Have you ever seen God help people like this?

And I would lean back and I'd get a second cup of coffee and I would start to tell you story after story after story after story after story of the young man or the not so young man or the now friend that's been two or three marriages and I mean was life a train wreck and how God, once they got to the point of I can't do this. You see, some of those cliches are pretty true. When you hit rock bottom, the only place you can look is up.

There's a lot of truth to that. I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me you really can't help people until they come to the end of themselves. I mean they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything but if you get with anyone in a celibate recovery or a 12-step or some sort of counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize I am helpless and I am hopeless to change. If that's you or if that's someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of his people and get real and get honest and what you'll find is he will use the power of his word and his spirit to little by little by little transform your life. Before we go any further today, this entire psalm is a series of scenes of people who come to the end of themselves. Sometimes they come to the end of themselves because they have done sinful or stupid or rebellious things and sometimes circumstances work out in such a way that they are just done, they are just lost, they just have no hope and then they cry out to the Lord and the Lord hears their cry and he delivers them, he meets them where they are. You may think that what you're going through is the worst thing in all the world, but perhaps God has allowed it for you to get to the end of yourself.

If you're not a follower of Christ, you need to first and foremost receive His gift and His power of eternal life. You need to say, Lord, I'm broken and I've messed up. I have sinned and I need Your help. I need You to forgive me and save me and come into my life. The Bible says as many of those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You can ask Jesus to forgive you based on what He did on the cross right now, right where you're at.

He understands, He'll hear you. Lord Jesus, forgive me, cleanse me, come into my life. Lord, I'm sorry. There are idols in my life. I've done my own thing, my own way, and today I draw a line in the sand and I say to You, all that I am, all that I have or ever have, I commit to You. I want You to be the Lord of my life. I want You to run my life. I want Your word to direct what I believe and what I'm going to do. Lord, I want You to bring people into my life that'll help me be the man or the woman I know You want me to be. I'm powerless to do this on my own, but today I declare You and You alone will be the CEO of my life, and I will follow You.

And as You have done that, You're going to get an onslaught from the enemy. So can I encourage you with all my heart to call the greatest Christian you know and tell him what you've done, get your Bible open, begin reading through the New Testament, John, Mark, wherever you want to start, and then find a good Bible-teaching church and get connected as soon as possible. Well, if you prayed to receive Christ with Chip, we have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was uniquely created for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org, then clicking the New Believers button.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org, or call 888-333-6003. Let us help you get started in your faith journey. Well, Chip's still with me in studio, and Chip, before we go, you wanted to take a quick minute and share some encouragement with our listeners.

Absolutely, Dave. What I want to share now is really important. For those of you who support our ministry in prayer and in your generous financial giving, I just want to say thank you. You know, when we share the gospel like this, I can just tell you, statistically, it's amazing. The powers and the message, many, many, many people come to know Jesus, are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, and I just want you to rejoice with us, and I want to thank you for being a part of Living on the Edge and what God is doing. Thanks for praying. Thanks for giving. Let's keep pressing ahead together.

Thanks, Chip. Well, if you'd like to join us in spreading the gospel and discipling fellow believers, consider becoming a financial partner today. As Chip just said, your support can have an eternal impact on someone's life. To learn more about becoming a financial partner, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, just tap donate. As we close, would you stop for a minute and pray for Living on the Edge today? We've never seen a greater need for God's truth to go out than right now, and by God's grace, Living on the Edge has provided encouragement, teaching, and personal discipleship resources to more people than ever. So thank you to those who support us in prayer. God is doing amazing things. We'll listen in next time as Chip wraps up his series, Be Strong and Courageous. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge. .