You know, I've spent the last 40 years asking
and answering some of life's most important questions.
Where we came from. Why do we exist? What is
truth? What happens after we die? And all these
issues have led me to one very clear conclusion.
And today, I want to share that with you. That's
today. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to
this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. We are an international teaching and
discipleship ministry that encourages and equips
Christians to live like Christians. We appreciate
you joining us as we near the end of our series,
Dealing with Doubts, Reaffirming Your Personal
Faith. And Chip and our guest teacher, John Dickerson,
have covered a lot of ground, haven't they? Chip
took time highlighting the core beliefs of the
Christian faith, such as intelligent design,
the existence of heaven and hell, and Jesus'
resurrection. When John taught, he focused on
the evidence that proves Jesus' life on earth,
the accuracy of Scripture, and the positive impact
Christianity has had on history. This has really
been an in -depth and valuable series. So if
you missed any part, I hope you'll go back and
catch up at livingontheedge .org or through the
Chip Ingram app. Well, with that, let's join
Chip for part two of his message, Why I Believe
in the God of the Bible. I have a friend named
John. He's actually an author, quite good one,
John Dickerson. And I asked him to do a little
bit of research for me. And he is like a head
down, dig deep. And he had these lists of all
the amazing things that Christians have done.
I mean, in science, you know, Newton, Kepler,
Pascal. And then he gave me reams and reams of
amazing material. Let me just read a quick list.
This is the impact of Christians with regard
to universities and education and what's happened
as a result of it. They launched the scientific
revolution. They launched the industrial revolution.
They created the first society in which girls
were provided equal education. They created and
spread Western democracy as we know it. It was
Christians that invented eyeglasses and thousands
of other life -changing inventions. The laws
of planetary motion were discovered by Christian
scientists. Germ theory, modern hospitals, education,
life -saving vaccines. They fought for women's
rights and the abolition of slavery. All of that
occurred because there was a Christian worldview
that said the dignity of man and this is who
God is and there is only one God and we are compelled
to make a difference. The fifth reason that I
believe in the God of the Bible as the one true
God is what I call the pragmatic evidence. The
teaching of Jesus and the New Testament, are
you ready? It works in real life. It promotes
healthy relationships, strong marriages, honest
business people, positive parenting, racial reconciliation,
cultural kindness, and they champion the value
and the dignity of all human beings, regardless
of creed, race, sex, nationality, or orientation.
I mean, even people that I completely, totally
disagree with, held by the God of the Bible to
love them and to serve them and to treat them
with dignity. I mean, it works. I mean, I didn't
grow up as a Christian and I will tell you, I
can't believe the marriage that I have, but it's
based around Christ. My wife came from an alcoholic
family. I came from an alcoholic family. What
I can tell you, the pragmatic reason is when
believers come together, Jesus is more important
than rice. I was teaching in the Middle East
on a series called The Invisible War. And I was
doing it to leaders from about 22 or 23 Arabic.
And there were people from Iran and people from
Iraq. And they were all believers. And they were
going to learn this and take it to their countries.
And as we were teaching it, this guy stood up
in the middle. He goes, I have something to say.
And then he turned and he said, I was a part
of the military in Iran. And when we went to
war, I killed many of your people. And I feel
ashamed. And the other guy got up. And he said,
I have done the same. And in the middle of this,
more than race, more than background, these two
men came, hugged one another, forgave each other
and tears streaming down their face. And you
know what that is? That's the power of the gospel.
Jesus changes lives from the inside out. He changes
relationships. He restores marriages. He helps
parents know how to model the kind of life that
raise kids that are productive. The sixth evidence
is the uniqueness of the Christian message and
the uniqueness of the Christian messenger. The
message of the New Testament is different than
any other religion in the world. It's a message
of grace. Let me give you a picture. Grace is
literally receiving what you do not deserve and
it's unconditional. I want you to imagine, if
you will, that we went to a bowling alley and
all across here, you know, they come in and they
have all the balls stacked and you go get your
ball and then you go back over to your lane.
And I want you to imagine that there's like 10
balls, they're all black and there's a white
one in the middle, then 10 more and they're all
black. And you get to turn each one. Usually
we turn them over to find out, you know, is it
the right size or how much does it weigh? And
each bowling ball represents, I could do a thousand
of them and there'd still be one white one in
the middle. Each bowling ball represents a religion.
And as you would turn it over, it has two letters,
do, turn, do, do. It can be Islam. It could be
Taoism. It can be pray five times a day. I can
come over here, do, do, do. Every single religion
is rooted in, here's what you need to do to appease
the anger of that God or to get on his or her
good side. But religion is based on do, do, do,
do, earn, earn, earn. And you never know if you
measure up. And then you come to the white ball
and you turn it over and there's four letters,
D -O -N -E, done. It's mind boggling. The Christian
message is not this is what you need to do to
earn favor with God. This is the God of the Bible
that saw your hurt and your sin and knew it was
coming and sent his only son. And he lived a
perfect life to explain what the father is like.
And after living a perfect life, he would unjustly
hang on a cross and pay for your sin and my sin
and the sins of all people in the world. And
as. The sins came upon him. The father would
turn away and he would become our sin offering
for that split second. And he would take your
sin and my sin upon him. And then he would die
and he would conquer death and conquer Satan.
And he'd be raised from the dead. And then he'll
sit at the right hand of the father. And now
he's our elder brother. And he says, whosoever
would believe you can have eternal life. It's
the message of grace. It's different than every
religion, every philosophy, every system. And
not only is the message different, the messenger
is different. Jesus was not just a great teacher.
He wasn't just a good moral person. He didn't
set just a good example. He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. In the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. And we beheld him. And it talks
about in grace and truth. No one has known God
at any time, but Jesus explained him. Jesus is
God. He's the word itself. Fully man, fully God.
It is a unique message and a unique messenger.
And I believe it. He rose from the dead. He proved
it's true. And all of life and all of history
is now before and after. The solitary life of
one rabbi who came claiming to be God and offering
freely the forgiveness of sins and that when
a person turns from your sin and in the empty
hands of faith recognizes that only he and what
he's done for you can save you, receive him by
faith, the Spirit of God... actually takes up
residence inside your mortal body and you've
been taken out of the kingdom of darkness. You've
placed in the kingdom of light and he actually
lives within you and he walks with you and you
walk with him. And it's a relationship, not a
religion. And this may be the most important
reason why I believe in the God of the Bible.
The final Reason that I believe in the God of
the Bible is I call it the existential evidence.
Millions of lives have changed over the last
2000 years and they experientially will declare
that Jesus is alive, that he is who he said he
is. I'm one of those people. Every day, 85 ,000
people worldwide are putting their faith in Christ.
People are admitting, I was blind, but now I
see. I was lost, but now I'm found. And their
testimony with all the ups and all the downs
that we all have in real life is peace, forgiveness,
joy, purpose, significance, love, guilt removed,
new relationships, new life. If any man, if any
woman is in Christ, you become a new creation.
The old things pass away. Behold, all things
become new. This is Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. And Chip will be right back to finish
today's message. But first, throughout this series,
we are identifying the notable issues that can
rattle our faith and cause doubt to seep in.
So let me quickly encourage you to join Chip
after this message. He'll highlight two valuable
resources we've bundled to help you process doubt
and uncertainty when they come. Keep listening
for more details. But for now, let's rejoin Chip
as he continues his talk, Why I Believe in the
God of the Bible. And so it raises a question
I don't know about you, but just logically, this
is a pretty hard deal to say no to, right? It's
free. It's given. It's life -changing. I mean,
most of all the gods in antiquity were cruel
and mean, and most of the religion was trying
to figure a way where they wouldn't come visit
you and hurt you. Actually, a good God, a kind
God, a benevolent God was almost an oxymoron.
And Jesus plays the trail through all of that.
So here's the question. What in the world could
keep people from receiving this free gift of
eternal life, of knowing he's prepared a place
for you in heaven and having a completely new
life? I'm gonna close with these top three reasons
why people do not receive the gift that God has
purchased for them. Number one is ignorance.
Some people, they don't know. Romans chapter
10 verses 14 and 15 is, how can they know if
there's not a preacher? And how can they preach
if no one has sent? And he goes on to say, blessed
are the feet of the peacemakers. You know, some
people in your life, you know why they haven't
received Christ? They don't know about him or
all they know is like people I talk to. I literally
talked with a man on a plane recently. If it
sounds like I'm on planes a lot, it's true. I
talked to him recently and he kind of sheepishly
said, you know, I don't really know the difference
between Judaism or Christianity. I mean, even
historically, could you help me kind of understand
when stuff happened and even the basic beliefs?
Do you know there's people in your world? There's
people in your coffee shop. There's people where
you drop off the dry cleaning. There's people
in your neighborhood. There's people in the cubicle
next to you. There's someone on the job site
where you're out there doing, you know, your
plumbing or electrical work. They don't know.
And that's why you're there. You are God's ambassador.
And my prayer is that through this series, you'll
have a boldness because you would believe not
just here, but here and have a boldness and a
conviction because you realize you're not throwing
your brains in the trash. You're being wise and
shrewd and doing what really counts. The second
reason why people don't believe is pride. Let
me ask you to open your Bible and actually read
this because I want you to see it with your own
eyes or open your phone, that works. I'm in John
chapter 12 and Jesus has been preaching and teaching
about being the light of the world. He says,
nevertheless, many of even the rulers believed
in him, but because of the Pharisees, the religious
leaders, they were not confessing him. In other
words, they weren't believing to the point of
going public. Lest they be put out of the synagogue.
Now listen to this, for they love the approval
of men rather than approval of God. You know,
there's people in your network and actually some
of you listening right now that you're so afraid
of what people would think. Oh, you became a
Jesus freak or you got religion or what about
this or what about that? I got news for you,
man. I got news for all of us. There'll come
a day when you will really care less what anyone
else thinks except God the Father and the judge
Jesus Christ. So can I encourage you? Forget
what people think. But that pride, boy, that
kept me back. All I could think of was, oh my
gosh, what are the guys on the basketball team
gonna say? Or, you know, my family, what will
they think? I will tell you what they think.
They saw a change in my life that led the rest
of my family to Christ. After my sister, then
me, then the rest of the family. And it changed
our whole family and the trajectory of our whole
future, both now and forever. The third reason
that people do not believe is a moral problem.
You know, we often read John chapter three, verse
16, you know, for God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only son, that whoever would
believe in him shouldn't perish, but have everlasting
life. But we don't usually read much farther.
Let me read as it continues in John, because
Jesus is going to point out at the heart of why
some people don't believe. He goes on to say,
he who believes in him isn't judged. He who does
not believe has been judged already because he
has not believed in the name of the only begotten
God. And this is the judgment, listen carefully,
that light has come into the world and men love
darkness rather than the light because their
deeds are evil. For everyone who does evil hates
the light and does not come into the light lest
his deeds be exposed. You know, I talk to people
sometimes and they have all these apparent intellectual
reasons about Christianity or about this or about
that. At the heart of a great many people, the
reason they don't believe is they're living in
a way that they know is wrong and it's morally
wrong. And they're unwilling to confess that
that is wrong, turn from their sin and receive
the free gift of God. Can I ask you, where are
you at? I mean, where are you at today? I don't
mean, did you pray a prayer or, you know, raise
your hand somewhere? Does your life and lifestyle
demonstrate that the living God by the person
of the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and your
values and your love and your capacity and your
future and your priorities reflect you are a
followers of Jesus Christ. See, I had this great
fear, especially for American Christians. I have
a fear that people have intellectually agreed
with almost everything I've said. But if we looked
at your life, it is so dissimilar to Jesus that
I would question, are you really in the faith?
Because what I can tell you is people that genuinely
know him and genuinely love him, we have our
struggles, but our life changes. Father, I want
to pray right now. And I want to ask you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ that your spirit
would move powerfully. that you would convict
of sin and righteousness and justice. Lord, that
you would convince people in their heart of hearts,
even as they're listening, that you love them,
that you want them. And if you're one of those
people that have never received Christ right
now at this moment, you can cry out to God, Lord
Jesus, I believe. I believe you died in my place,
rose from the dead. I'm asking you, come into
my life, be my savior and give me the power to
follow you. Make me your son. Make me your daughter.
And Lord, I pray for those of us that are followers
of Jesus, would you give us a holy boldness and
a concern for others, some that haven't heard
and some that haven't seen a real Christian live
out the life so they would ask about the hope
that's in us. Lord, we know that's your will,
so we pray powerfully in Jesus' name. Amen. Before
we go on today, I want to pause because in the
message I talked about the three reasons why
people don't believe. And I believe I'm speaking
to some people right now that as I went over
those three reasons, you literally self -identified.
It's not an accident that we're having this conversation.
And so in this moment, I'd just like to review.
One is ignorance. For some of you, you're listening
and you're thinking, Even if you're a moral person
or maybe you went to church or maybe, you know,
you don't see yourself as religious at all, you
would say, up until today, I was ignorant. I
didn't know this. And I want you to know that
God wants you. He loves you. He's for you. He
wants to forgive you. He wants to come into your
life. He wants to direct you. He has a plan.
It doesn't mean it'll be easy, but he'll be with
you. The second is there's others that, down
deep, As I was speaking, it was hard to admit,
but you're proud. You're this independent, I
don't want anyone telling me what to do. And
it's couched in, you know, you're more scientific
or you're more intellectual. But the fact of
the matter is, is God's breaking through and
he's saying, you know what, you can't handle
all of this. You don't know everything. I made
all that there is. I made you. You know your
failures when you're honest. I want to forgive
you and love you and receive you. And then there's
some that you really know the story, but your
appetites currently, they're drowning out God's
voice because the guilt that comes when you think
about really following Jesus the way that you
know how and how you're currently living, it's
just like, It's a train wreck. And what started
out as pleasure and freedom, now you're a slave
to it. And Jesus would say, I want to deliver
you. And so I want to pray for all three of these
groups and those of you that God has destined
on this day, in this moment, that we would have
this conversation. And I would invite you to
say, Lord Jesus, you know everything about me.
There's no use hiding or pretending. I want to
tell you, I need you today. I desperately need
you. I admit, I fall short, I've sinned, I've
done things wrong, but today I want you to know
I'm turning from my way and I'm asking you right
now, Almighty God, will you forgive me of all
my sins based solely on what Jesus did on the
cross in his resurrection? And I take up your
offer where you say that you're knocking at the
door of my heart, and if I would open the door,
that you would come into my life and live with
me and guide me and direct me. So today I ask
you, forgive me, come into my life, make me your
son, make me your daughter. And Lord, thank you
for your forgiveness. Now help me to grow and
help me to follow you all the days of my life.
In Jesus' name. As you have prayed that with
me, it's not some little spiritual activity.
If it is the intent of your heart, the Bible
says when you believe in your heart and confess
with your mouth, you shall be saved, delivered,
forgiven. You need to text the best Christian
you know or give them a call and tell them exactly
what you did. And you need to go to our website
at livingontheedge, all one word, livingontheedge
.org. And we don't want to sell you anything.
We just have some free information that will
help you understand this new step and to help
you grow. Now find a good Bible teaching church
this weekend and you don't have to know anything.
Just go and let some people love you. God bless
you and keep pressing ahead. Well, if you prayed
to receive Christ, we do have a free resource
we'd like to put in your hands that was created
specifically 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 and 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 with me in studio
now. 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 in 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
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can have an eternal impact on someone's life.
To learn more about becoming a financial partner,
go to livingontheedge .org or call 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. Hey, you're not going to
want to miss our next broadcast as we'll share
Chip's enlightening conversation with best -selling
author and renowned Christian apologist, Sean
McDowell. They'll discuss the intentional ways
parents, grandparents, and pastors can help young
people navigate doubts and faith challenges.
That's coming up on the next edition of Living
on the Edge. I'm Dave Drewy, and I hope you'll
join us then.