It has been said that we can live a few weeks
without food, a few days without water, but only
a few minutes without hope. We all have something
or someone that sustains us and gives us hope.
Here's my question. Where's your hope? We're
gonna talk today about a hope that can never
let you down. 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 motivates Christians
to live like Christians. And in just a minute,
we'll continue our series, I Choose Joy, based
in Philippians chapter one. Last time, Chip shared
the story of a close friend who faced unimaginable
adversities. Yet through everything he experienced,
his faith in God empowered him to endure anyway.
In this program, Chip builds off that inspiring
testimony by highlighting the three ways God
delivered people throughout the Bible and how
those truths apply to us today. So grab your
Bible and notes as we join Chip for part two
of his message, Understanding the Power of Hope.
Deliverance number one, he delivers us out of
the adversity or the difficulty. Number two is
he delivers us through them. Jot down 2 Corinthians
12, verses 9 and 10. This is what Paul is experiencing.
He tells us that he had this amazing experience,
and so that he wouldn't get proud, he was given
a thorn in his flesh. Everyone postulates and
guesses, is it malaria? Is it an eye disease?
We don't know what it is, but all we know is
that there was a bad back situation that he was
struggling with, and he was in pain all the time.
And God did not, and he prayed. I mean, Paul's
got a pretty effective prayer life, wouldn't
you agree? And he asked God in faith, believing,
take it away, take it away, take it away. And
God said, no, no, no. My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness.
And then Paul's attitude changed and realized
sometimes God wants to do a deeper thing in us
and he doesn't deliver us out of it. He delivers
us through it. And as he delivers us through
it, he refines us and our faith grows and our
character changes. And it's very difficult. And
he gives us a joy and a contentment and a peace
that's unexplainable externally apart from a
living God doing something inside of you. The
third way that God delivers us is unto himself.
We were talking about this as pastors. We were
going over the study earlier. And one of the
guys in the group said, you know what's kind
of odd? Is that in our day, we think the worst
thing that could ever happen to a person is they
die. And that doesn't seem to be Paul's perspective.
Christ gets exalted whether I live or whether
I die. And a little bit later, we're going to
read that he's not sure whether he's going to
stick around or die. The dilemma, he thinks it's
far better to be with Christ. I've had both my
parents die of debilitating, painful, long diseases.
When my parents died, by the time they got to
where they died, it was, Lord, thank you. To
watch them live through what they were living
through at that level was really, really painful.
And Psalm 116 says, precious in the eyes of the
Lord are the death of his godly ones. You see,
if all there is is now temporal and someone you
love dies, I got news, you got nothing. You got
nothing. But if in fact there is an eternity,
if there really is a heaven, if what Jesus told
the disciples the very last night that allowed
them to hang tough and hang on no matter what,
there's an eternity, there's a heaven, that it's
real, then it's pretty interesting. It sustains
you. And it's sad and it's hard and we lose those
that we love. And that's why sharing Christ is
so important. That's why if you're here or you're
watching or you're listening and you've never
put your faith in Christ, you need to know that
you're going to be in heaven. And that's not
something from trying to be a nice little good
person or being a bit moral. Your sins have got
to be completely covered. You have to receive
the gift of Christ dying on the cross for you
in your place and turn from your sin, repent,
and ask Christ to forgive you and come into your
life. And he will. And you can know for sure.
The first reason Paul has joy in the midst of
these horrendous circumstances, his deliverance
is certain. And he's certain that by the grace
of God, he is going to be faithful. He is certain
that he's going to be bold in his faith right
into the end. And he's certain that whether he
lives and gets to go on and minister more, or
whether he dies and is immediately ushered into
the presence of Christ, that he knows that's
his hope. But the next reason is equally powerful.
The second reason that he has this joy is his
source of joy is unshakable. It's unshakable.
Circumstances go up, they go down. Incomes go
up, incomes go down. Hurricanes come, hurricanes
go. Earthquakes come, earthquakes go. Economies
go up, economies go down. Marriages are good,
marriages aren't so good. Kids do great things
that make you proud. Kids do some terrible things
that make you sad. You're healthy and working
out and doing a triathlon this year and next
year they got a biopsy report and they got tubes
running in you. Circumstances up, circumstances
down. You either live your life like a little
cork on the waves of circumstances of the sea
of life or you live your life with that leaning
eagerly expectation and anchor of your soul hope
that there's a heaven and there's a God and there
are promises and he will sustain me and as I
trust him and that's what Paul does. His joy,
the source of it, is unshakable. He says, for
me to live is Christ. Temporal. Eternal. To die
is gain. If I'm to live on in the body, this
will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall
I choose? I don't know. I'm torn between the
two. I'm hard pressed from both directions. Having
the desire to depart and be with Christ, for
that is very much better, yet to remain on the
flesh. is more necessary for your sakes. And
then he kind of comes to this moment, and convinced
of this, as the Spirit of God is speaking to
me, as I'm writing this letter, as I'm processing,
he says, I know that this will turn out, that
I'll remain and continue with you all. Why? For
your progress and, is this guy like crazy? Who's
he concerned about? Your joy in the faith, so
that your proud confidence in me can abound in
Christ through my coming to you again. For to
me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul lives,
there's two platforms in life. You look at life
from this platform of time, or you look at life
at this platform from eternity. And he says,
in time, it's Christ, and if it's Christ, I'm
gonna continue to serve, because... unlike American
Christianity, he thinks the goal of life is to
love God and to serve him and to know him and
to enjoy him and to share that with as many people
as you can before you die and to model the kind
of life for you and your friends or if you're
married, your children, so that the most important
thing is not what school you go to, not how much
money you make, not what you look like, what
other people think, but the most important thing
is that Christ is the center of your heart and
life and you are, actually reflecting what he's
like. It's called his glory. Everybody and everything
revolves around something. It's interesting,
you know, take a microscope and right, you know,
you've got the center of the nucleus and those
electrons are going around it. And now they've
got super powerful ones and there's stuff inside
of that things going around or, you know, all
the planets go around the sun. They found now
that our solar system and our sun actually goes
around an axle star. Everything in life goes
around something. The question is, what does
your life go around? Paul said, my life goes
around the living Christ. He's my anchor. And
so if I live, it's for him. And if I die, it's
gain. I'm immediately translated into the presence
of Christ. No soul sleep, no purgatory, no waiting.
I die instantaneously. I'm in the presence of
Christ. And then he begins to think and ponder
about, wow, what should I do? I'm hard pressed
from both directions. He desires to part and
be with Christ. I don't think many of us would
say that if we're just honest, right? See, I
don't think Christianity was a religion for Paul.
I don't think it was a moral statement. I don't
think it was, I wanna do really good in this
life and it has a lot of good byproducts and
produces good things and it's important. I think
Christianity for Paul was a life transforming
moment of a relationship connected to God. And
he loved God and he got to know, even though
he never met, I mean, we have some visions that
he has, He didn't meet him face to face as far
as we know. But the Spirit of God living in him,
just like he lives in us who are followers, he
cultivated that. And he cultivated it by, he
took that Old Testament and God revealed to him,
this is his word. And he cultivated a tenderness
to hear the Spirit of God and follow it. And
he was always living in community. In other words,
it was his relationship and he thought, you know,
I have this, I've got this barrier still. I still
have this barrier. I've tasted and I've seen
and he's changed me and he's revealed things.
But I have this barrier. It would be better to
be face to face. But his heart is one of, I want
to do whatever you want me to do. And these Philippians.
They could use some good teaching still. They're
still messed up. You know, these two ladies are
arguing with each other and under pressure, they're
not doing so well. In fact, I'm gonna write them
pretty soon about humility and loving each other
because they're kind of at each other's throats.
So Lord, plan A, I'll be with you. Awesome. Plan
B, I'll stay here as long as you want. I think
God must want me to stay. Notice the secret is
his vantage point. I looked this up in the dictionary
and I loved it. A vantage is a position or situation
more advantageous than opponents. That's one
definition, but I think the second one has much
more application for us. A position that allows
a clear, broad view, understanding, a vantage
point. In other words, what you need to understand,
it's not just where's your hope. but it's from
where are you looking for your hope? You're listening
to Living on the Edge. We'll return you to Chip's
message in just a minute. But first, let me tell
you, God is doing incredible work through this
ministry all around the world. And if you'd like
to join us, consider partnering with us during
our mid -year match. Every gift we receive until
midnight on June 30th will be doubled dollar
for dollar. Join us today by going to livingontheedge
.org or by calling 888 -333 -6003. We appreciate
your generosity. Well, with that, here again
is Chip. Paul had been beaten at least three
times, left for dead once, overnight in the ocean.
been in prison, deeply discouraged. I'm not reading
into the text. If you read 2 Corinthians pretty
carefully and look at Acts, he's probably clinically
depressed at one point, just is almost at the
end of his rope. And his words, knock down, but
not out. And then he says this in 2 Corinthians
chapter four, because I think this is the greatest
thing that we need out of this passage and in
our life is not to lose heart. Therefore, we
do not lose heart, but though our outward man
is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed
day by day. For momentary light affliction is
producing for us an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison. While we notice perspective
words now, look and see, while we look not at
the things which are seen, But we look at the
things which are not seen. For the things which
are seen are temporal. But the things which are
not seen are eternal. But there's a couple questions
we need to answer as we close. Where's your hope?
See, ask yourself what really gets you discouraged.
Ask yourself when you're frustrated and when
you're angry and when you're mad. Is your hope
in a perfect marriage? Is your hope in upward
mobility? Is your hope in what school your kids
get in or how they're doing in their grades?
Is your hope in your body and how you look? Come
on, this is just us in here. Don't look at me
like that. Come on now. We all, here's the thing.
God loves us so much, he's saying, don't be stupid.
instruct those who are rich in this present world
not to be conceited or fix their hope on the
uncertainty of riches, America, the uncertainty
of riches, but on God who richly supplies us
with all things to enjoy. It's not that money's
bad. It's not that success is bad, but they make
really bad gods. They make great idols. And what
idols do is destroy idol worshipers. So the question
for every believer in this room is what's my
life really going around? Not what I say it's
going around or not what I think it's going around.
And if you want to know, just go home and check
your finances. Then go check where you go on
the internet. And then go check where your time
goes. And check who are your closest friends
and what do you talk about. And you'll know exactly
what your life is going around. You can sing,
I love Jesus and come to church and try and be
a good person and your life really go around
a married person, your kids, your work, your
money, your future and your stuff. And we all
do it. So God brought us here together on this
day to repent of that. For some of you, he brought
you today to give you the biggest gift you'll
ever receive in your life, eternal life. You
don't have an eternal hope. Well, you've got
temporal stuff and you might be successful. You
might even be moral. But I'll tell you what,
add cancer and a week to live, you better have
what's on the other side of this wall. And so
he just brought you here to say, it's really
not that complicated. Yes, you lose control to
an all -knowing, all -powerful, good God who
so demonstrated his love, he died in your place,
rose from the dead, and for 2 ,000 years has
been transforming the world, and now he wants
to transform you. Father, thank you for how good
and how kind. Thank you that you love us. God,
I thank you that... As hard as life has been
and as many mistakes as I have made, I've just
seen thousands upon thousands upon thousands,
and myself included, experience a hope that no
difficulty or tragedy or challenge can change.
And so I want to pray now for those that would
say, you know, I'm not sure whether I have eternal
life. And if that's you, I would like you to
bow your heart. Your eyes are already closed,
but bow your heart and be as honest as you can
be and say, Almighty God, I'm the God of my life
and I'm running my life. And I repent. I ask
you now to forgive me of all my sins, past, present,
and future. I believe that when Jesus died on
the cross, he died for my sins and rose from
the dead. I accept that gift and ask you to come
into my life right now and then give me the courage
to tell someone this very day, Lord, help me
to understand your word as you start to speak
to me. And God, would you please provide a community
of friends to help me grow? And if you're a follower
and you realize some of those idols have crept
in, would you just tell God, no more. I need
a hope that won't change. I need a future that's
secure. And then would you covenant with God
to tell at least one person before the sun goes
down on this day, this is a baby step I'm taking
to make Jesus the center of what my whole life
goes around. And you probably need some help
to get there. Before we go any further today,
I want to pause and give you the opportunity
that I gave the people in our church when I taught
this. Maybe the Spirit of God is speaking to
you and there's a real battle going on in your
heart right now. And you're saying, oh God, what
would this look like in my life today if I put
all my hope in you? You know, I travel a lot
and I get to meet people and I am both surprised,
amazed, and so deeply encouraged by how many
people will tell me, you know, I was driving
in my car and just pushing some buttons and you
came on and as I listened, God spoke to me. And
it was in my car that I actually paused and recognized
for the first time that I needed Jesus. that
I needed forgiveness, that I needed a hope that
would never go away. And I actually, in that
moment, paused. I stopped. And I confessed my
sin. And in the name of the Lord Jesus, I asked
him to forgive me. If you have never done that,
today is the day of salvation. God is speaking
to you. He knows all about your life, all about
your struggles, all about your fears. all about
the things that you're ashamed of that are in
your past. And he's saying to you, come unto
me. I want to forgive you. I came for you. I
lived a perfect life. I died in your place upon
the cross to take all of the sins that you've
committed and place them on me. But you need
to receive this as a free gift by faith. And
so if you want to do that in your heart of hearts,
you can speak to God. Oh, God. Today, I believe
Jesus died in my place to pay for my sin. And
I'm asking you to come into my life and forgive
me, to make me your son, to make me your daughter.
I believe that you paid for my sin on the cross
and you rose from the dead to prove that it's
true. I want to follow you with all my heart
and with all my strength. Please give me your
power. And I want you to know that the God who
created all that there is cares for you. And
at this moment, the biggest and most important
thing you can do is to share that with the best
Christian you know. The scripture says that believing
in our heart and professing with our mouth, we
are saved. He wants to love you and help you
and encourage you. You need to find a great Bible
teaching church this weekend and then come to
us at livingontheedge .org. That's livingontheedge
.org. And we have some free resources to help
you begin to grow in your brand new relationship
with the God who loves you. Thanks, Chip. 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, 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, you know,
many of our listeners are familiar with our discipleship
work here in the U .S., but Living on the Edge
also has a really prominent presence all over
the world. Would you take a minute and tell us
a bit more about that? I'm thrilled to, Dave.
In the book of Acts, Jesus commissioned those
early disciples and us. He said, you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
even to the uttermost parts of the world. And
what has happened, especially in the last five
to seven years through Living on the Edge, is
a global movement. It's been amazing to be able
to, I think we've now trained about 330 ,000.
pastors and leaders in multiple countries around
the world. That little book, The Art of Survival,
it's been translated in 28 languages, and God
is using it and passing it all around as people
struggle with the challenges and the difficulties
that's coming at them. In fact, one of the most
encouraging things globally to me is our outreach
in the Middle East. We have a partnership with
all the Protestant churches in Egypt, a new partnership
out of the Gulf states, and believe this, 479
Muslim background believers have come to know
Jesus personally through our outreaches there.
And this isn't like a click on the internet.
We had over a million visitors in just a couple
months to our The Real God in Arabic. And out
of that came people that were searching, that
led to conversations, that led to private meetings,
that led to 479 Muslims trusting Jesus for their
salvation. If you have a heart for the world,
If you want to be a part of the Great Commission,
what I can tell you is we are seeing God work
in and through living on the edge in ways that
we never dreamed. But as He opens all these doors,
the need for prayer support and the need for
financial assistance is bigger than ever before.
Jesus is on the move. Here's my request. Are
you willing to join Him? Well, if you'd like
to help us share the good news with unbelievers
and disciple Christians all over the globe, now's
the time to partner with us. Up until midnight
on June 30th, every gift we receive will be doubled
dollar for dollar. To give toward our mid -year
match, visit livingontheedge .org or call 888
-333 -6003. That's 888 -333 -6003 or go to livingontheedge
.org. App listeners tap Donate. And thanks in
advance for doing whatever God leads you to do.
Well, as we close, if you're looking for a way
to get more out of our teaching, let me encourage
you to download the message notes. This helpful
tool is available for every program. They include
a clear outline, all the scripture references,
and lots of fill -ins to help you remember what
you're learning. You can get them at livingontheedge
.org under the broadcasts tab. App listeners
tap fill in notes. Well, until next time, this
is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to
this edition of Living on the Edge.