Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
Do you believe that what you're experiencing
today is not all there is? Now what if I told
you right now God is orchestrating events, circumstances,
people, and relationships to bring about a breakthrough,
a shift in the status quo, a fresh awakening?
in your heart of His Spirit and that He wants
you to get in on the action. The question is,
will you be ready? Find out. That's today. Do
you believe what you're experiencing today is
all there is? What if God is preparing something
bigger than you can imagine? Today on Living
on the Edge, Chip Ingram reveals how breakthrough
actually happens. It's not random. It's not luck.
Throughout history, God has followed a consistent
pattern to create windows of opportunity for
His power to work, a pattern we're discussing
today. It's part of our series, Experience Breakthrough.
From the early church to modern -day revivals,
the formula remains the same, and it starts with
us getting honest about our need. Well, here's
Chip Ingram with today's message titled, Making
Room for Breakthrough. I have a little devotional
called Magnificent Prayer about prayer that I
read just about every morning. And I came across
a quote that literally kind of energized my whole
view of breakthrough. It's by a preacher of the
19th century. His name is Phillips Brooks. And
he said this, pray the largest prayers. You cannot
think a prayer so large. that God in answering
it will not wish you had made it larger. Now,
is that an amazing thought? You cannot pray a
prayer that no matter how large it was, that
after you have prayed it, God would wish that
you would have made it larger. And then I love
the last nine. He says, pray not for crutches,
but for wings. Don't pray for a little help to
get through the situation. Pray to soar. And
it just reminded me, God is good. I mean, God
wants to bless you. He wants to intervene. He
wants to take the most difficult situations,
the most difficult relationships, the most amazing
things that you couldn't fathom in your neighborhood
and at your job and with your relatives and with
your past and with your struggles, and He wants
to blow His power into them and change them.
Can you imagine? Would you just kind of lean
back for a second and just let your mind imagine
what it would be like? Can you imagine one of
your neighbors knocking on the door and saying,
you know something, we kind of know a little
bit that you're one of those Christians. Would
you lead a Bible study in our neighborhood? We
would like to discover who Jesus is. Or can you
imagine going into work one day and, you know,
the person that's a jerk, I mean the person that
you wish would leave, you know, coming in and
saying, excuse me, could we talk? And you get
over there and he goes, I was riding on the bus
and some really weird looking person started
talking to me and I just wanted him to go away
and he talked about Jesus and life and eternal
life and payment for my sin and I have no idea
why I was listening but I found myself at a park
bench later sitting down and I prayed to receive
Christ and can you imagine that? Can you imagine
one of your relatives that I mean is just mean,
cantankerous, that you just think there's no
hope for and having them calling you and saying,
you know what, I've just trusted Christ. God
really loves everyone. God can do anything. What
would you want him to do? What would you want
him to do in your life? And maybe it's not a
neighbor or a boss. Maybe it's like, you know,
you've struggled with that alcohol, that porn
addiction, the guilt from the past from a divorce
or an abortion. You know, just an issue inside
where you know, you just sense and you've tried
a number of times. And for you, it's a spiritual
issue. It's not even a weight issue. It's just
you keep eating food when you know you're not
really hungry, and you keep hitting it, hitting
it, hitting it, and you're down on you, and you
live in shame. What would happen if the power
of God was released in your life and then through
your life? We're going to learn that he wants
to do it, but we're going to learn also that
we have to make room. Isaiah 53 is the biggest
breakthrough. God talks about a Messiah is going
to come and liberate and bring light. A Messiah
is going to come and he's going to bring life
and forgiveness. But in chapter 54, he says to
Israel at a time when I mean their life is not
going well and breakthrough doesn't even seem
possible. He says this to them. Enlarge the place
of your tent. Stretch out the curtains of your
dwellings. Spare not. Lengthen your cords. Strengthen
your pegs. Why? For you will spread abroad to
the right and to the left. Your descendants,
I mean, they're in captivity. Your descendants
are going to resettle cities and nations. God
is going to use you. He's saying you need to
make room for the huge and amazing blessing beyond
what you can imagine is coming. And what I want
you to do, Is that you and I have to do that
in our private lives. We got to do it in our
relational lives. And we need to make room even
in the church to let God work. So what is a breakthrough?
It's an offensive thrust that penetrates and
carries beyond a defensive line in warfare. We're
in a war. And it's a war for your soul. And it's
a war for the future. But breakthrough isn't
something we wait around and hope God will do
someday, someway, sometime. God has promised
and wants to. It's something we do. Only he makes
it happen, but there's initiative on our part.
It's an act or instance of breaking through an
obstacle. So breakthroughs have to do with, there's
resistance. It's difficult. There's a barrier.
And breakthroughs always have a sudden advance.
Change happens. There's a difference. We find
in our personal lives or in a group or in a church
or in a city or as we see globally, there's a
great need. And the great need is caused by great
sin. And sin is just missing the mark. We're
not doing life God's way. And sin always leads
to great bondage. People become slaves. Become
slaves of food, slaves of money, slaves of sex,
slaves of power. Breakthroughs come when people
not realize they're in pain and difficulty and
they're bad people and they don't measure up
and God would never want them. Breakthroughs
come when they understand the goodness and the
kindness of God. It's the tolerance of God. It's
the love of God. It's the patience of God. Romans
chapter 2 tells us that leads us to repentance,
to a change of mind. I want you to know that
whatever breakthrough you're struggling with,
whatever breakthrough you would long to see happen
in your family, the breakthrough will come. Not
when you're down on yourself and I can't measure
up, I need to get with the program. The breakthrough
will come. When you can begin to grasp that God
is waiting with open arms and he loves you and
he loves people that you don't think much of
and he cares about them and he literally wants
you and me to be agents of kindness and love.
It doesn't mean there aren't boundaries. It doesn't
mean there isn't truth. It means that you aren't
their judge, God is. And the judgment of God
by and large is just the consequences of people's
behavior. And then God, over and over and over
and over, he does it in individuals. He does
it in families. He does it in small groups. Historically,
he does it in churches. At times, he does it
in whole cities. And then there's times where
we've even seen it in the last 40 or 50 years.
He does it in nations where there's a revolution
of breakthrough and the kindness and the goodness
of God. God's deliverance comes through a clear,
strong vision of what? of God's goodness and
mercy. Notice where does this clear, strong vision
of God's goodness and mercy, it's birthed in
ordinary people that meet the great needs by
unleashing God's power in impossible situations.
What we're talking about is not for special people
that get in stained glass someday. What we're
talking about is the God of the universe that
wants to take the person that's sitting in your
seat and get you to believe and to trust that
he's so good and so kind and so willing and so
powerful that he would use an ordinary person
like you to receive that and then pass it on.
If what I just said is true and it's born out
in scripture, it's born out in church history,
how does breakthrough actually happen? How does
it happen? This isn't theory. This isn't what
ought or should or maybe could happen someday,
some way. How does it happen? The answer is the
pathway to breakthrough involves three things.
But I want you to know the pathway to breakthrough
involves God's sovereign work in the world, first
and foremost. Then we're going to see it's his
sovereign work in his people. And finally, a
little bit later, we'll see it's his sovereign
work through. Let's take them one at a time.
First of all, God's sovereign work in the world.
When you look at how God has broken through in
seasons in the Old Testament, in captivity, in
the coming of Christ, in major things like the
Reformation, when you see what happened in China
or in Korea, in South America or in Africa in
the last 90 or 100 years. The pattern is all
the same. Number one, there's external pressure.
External pressure. Stuff starts happening. Economies,
politics, shifts, famine, plagues, difficulties.
There's external pressure in the world. Simultaneously,
there's internal deterioration. This is a picture
of the Roman Empire. God didn't just come at
a certain time. Galatians 4 .4 says, when the
world was pregnant, when it was ready, when the
world was ripe for a breakthrough, there was
external pressure. There was ethnic divisions.
There was problems with the economy. There was
Romans and Greek culture in conflict. And there
was internal deterioration, infanticide, families,
women being passed around, being divorced seven,
eight, nine times. There was a global crisis,
and into that breakthrough, Jesus came. And you
see, that pattern, God sovereignly works. We're
going to talk about our responsibility, but John,
if you would, in the corner, Job 42 .2. It's
near the end of the book, and if you know the
story of Job, he's been through a lot. And he
didn't know what was going on behind the scenes.
But as he gets near to the end of the book and
sees life for how it is, this is what Job says.
I know, oh God, that you can do anything and
that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I will
tell you this, no purpose of God will be thwarted
in your life, in this country, in any nation,
or in all of history. God is sovereignly at work
and he will take the air. And the pain, the disobedience,
the judgment, the faithfulness of people, and
he aligns those things and he brings about the
velvet vice of external pressure. And then as
the way people live begin to deteriorate and
they realize they have need, he creates windows
of crisis in individuals' lives, windows of crisis
in groups and in churches and in cities and in
nations. And when there's responsiveness, we
make room. And when we make room, the Spirit
of God blows with power. And He works in individuals.
And revolutions occur. And we've seen it happen
over and over and over. Second, it's the sovereign
work of God, not just in the world, but He always
begins with His people. When you happen to be
a follower of Christ for a while, after a while,
what we start doing is, you know the problem?
It's Hollywood. I mean, are they just putting
out a bunch of lousy stuff or what? Or you know
what? It's the government. I mean, let's have
coffee and just talk about the government. Or
you know what? The educational, right? Or those
corporations. Or it's all those lazy people.
What we tend to do is we find someone else somewhere
where the problem is to blame. And I will tell
you this. Here's God's perspective. Repentance
always begins with a household of faith. Here's
the principle. God must work. deeply in you before
he will work powerfully through you. That's always
his agenda. I mean, he worked in Paul. He worked
in Peter. You look at what happened in China.
He worked in people, external pressure, persecution,
kicked the missionaries out. You look at Korea,
a pagan nation. You look at what's happened in
South America. You look at the last 90 or 100
years in Africa. At the current rate, there would
be more black Christians than white Christians
in the world because of the movement and the
power of God. But he always starts in us. He
always puts his finger on what he wants to do
in us. And so individuals have a breakthrough
like an Apostle Paul. And then a group has a
breakthrough, like the church. And the early
church breakthrough is to realize, can you imagine
this? You mean God doesn't just love Jews? I
mean, this was like hundreds of years of breakthrough.
He cares about them. And after that breakthrough,
then you see communities impacted. And as it's
rolled out of the New Testament, you go from
the Jews to then the Samaritans, the mixed breed.
And then by chapter 10, it's the Gentiles. And
what you see is a spontaneous movement of God
and often centered around cities. City movements
are birthed. And nations are transformed. You're
listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment. If
you've missed any part of this message or if
you'd like to share it with a friend, you can
find it anytime online at Living on the Edge.
And while you're there, you'll also discover
a full library of Chip's teaching series, small
group resources, and practical tools to help
you grow in your faith. It's all waiting for
you at livingontheedge .org. Now let's get back
to today's message. In 1857, it's an interesting
story, and there's many more of these than 1857.
Morality in America was in the pits. If you know
some of the research between 1857 and about 1890
or close to 1900, it went from about the average
of seven kids to three kids because abortion
was so widespread in America. And thanks, believe
it or not, to the feminists and the American
Medical Society, they said, how we're treating
women. Abortion was just basically birth control.
Pushed on women. And in 1857, with external pressures
and internal deterioration, a group of people
thought something needs to happen and they started
praying in New York City. And that little prayer
meeting, they just began, they took three request
answers, three request answers, three request
answers. And all I can tell you is they made
room for God. And they said, you know, we got
a big problem and this country is going down
the tubes and boy, there's all kind of issues
and it's family issues and moral issues and economic
issues and pretty soon. Something happened and
thousands of people were taking their lunch hour
all over New York and praying. And then pretty
soon it went to other major cities and literally,
statistically, millions of people came to Christ.
And there was a reshifting and a rebalancing.
Why? Because God worked in his people. But when
God works in his people, the litmus test is not
that they get together and go, oh, I love Jesus
now. We need everything Christian. I love being
with Christian people and let's read the Bible
more. And I want to be at church not three times
a week, but seven times a week. And in fact,
we'll have Christian bowling and we'll have Christian
dentists and Christian doctors and Christian
recording artists and Christian everything. In
fact, I want all Christian floss with a Christian
toothbrush made by Christians who make great
toothpaste. And what happens is The privatization
and thinking that this movement of God is about
our little world and there's the bad people out
there and somehow that we are God's people totally
misses everything God wants to do. That's not
a breakthrough. The litmus test of when the Spirit
of God supernaturally works is He's orchestrating
things in the world sovereignly. And then He
begins to work in His people dynamically. And
then his people get it and they begin to deal
with issues in their heart and their relationships.
And then he works through them supernaturally.
Notice, God's sovereign work through his people.
Here's what happens. There's life. And since
it comes, not because I'm trying hard, I'm going
to church more, I'm praying harder. Oh God, please
listen to me. It comes because we Christians
realize the good in life. isn't out there. It's
from God. We start believing our own message.
It's the gospel. He's merciful. I'm a Christian
and I love God and I have an eating disorder.
I'm a Christian and I love God and I've got one
divorce in my past and it looks like another
one's on the radar soon. I'm a Christian and
I love God and I have this secret habit on the
internet. I'm a Christian and I love God and
I hurt my back and they gave me those pain pills
and now my back's better but the pain pills are
still with me. I'm a Christian and I love God
but I'm working like 90 hours and I'm telling
myself and we feel shame and so what most Christians
do is try to project everything's okay and fake
it. Because down deep, you don't believe God's
good. You don't believe he's patient. You don't
believe he's tolerant. Unlike the prodigal, you
don't believe you have a father that's going,
son, daughter, come home. I understand. You're
in the pig pen. I mean, you're doing life your
way instead of my way. I'm not down on you. Every
day, what did the father do? I wonder if he's
coming today. I wonder if he's coming today.
And so Jesus, What he says to the church so he
can work through, he says, come, come to me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden or stressed
out and trapped with sin and shame and difficulty.
I'm not down on you. All the judgment that I
have, I've already placed on my son. You're forgiven.
Come to me. And are you ready? Don't have some
little emotional experience. Come unto me, all
of you that are laboring and stressed out and
under pressure, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke. It's a picture of, you know, the oxen.
And Jesus says, I'm on this side. I want you
to get your life hooked up with mine, and I want
you to let me lead. I've got the power. In fact,
your side of it will be light. My burden is light.
It's not burdensome. I want you to do marriage
my way. I want you to do your finances my way.
I want you to do your thinking my way. I want
you to discover how much or how little or what
to do with the media the way I would. Why? Because
I'm good. Because I want to give you the best.
And all the mistakes and all the junk, you don't
have to hide from me. You don't have to be in
shame. I want to forgive and restore just like
I did when you first trusted me. And then I want
to do life with you. And I want to empower you.
And we need to erase some of those old tapes
and some of those lies and some of the stuff
that is just absolutely messing you up. Because
I'm good. I'm merciful. Do you know what mercy
is? I mean, do you know what the word means?
It means you don't get what you deserve. We don't
believe God's merciful. We think, you know, we're
gonna come and he's got a big ruler, you know,
like this cosmic ruler. Whap, whap, whap. Now,
when we come, we gotta get honest and he'll change
us. But you gotta come. And when you do, here's
what happens to all those people around you.
He's not just working in the world and he's not
just working in you. He starts working through
you. And your focus instead of all your energy
on trying to find the good out there and hiding
in shame from God is neighbors are known and
loved. Coworkers observe excellence, integrity,
and concern. A community's deepest needs are
met. The poor get fed. HIV patients get a drive
to their doctor. And you're not concerned about
how they got it. Because you realize, you know
what? God, mercy, and goodness is really as much
for everyone else in the world as it's been for
you. Paul would say, I was a chief among sinners.
Some of us are so uptight about people's lifestyle
or their behavior or where they're coming from
or the direction of this or that that we're not
kingdom people anymore. We're our people and
don't mess up our little world and our country
like it's ours. I got news for you. The kingdom
of God is near. And the kingdom is, I want you
to think about these people the way I do. They're
hurting. They're lost. They have needs. They
have hurts. Their relationships aren't working.
They're in bondage. And I want to set them free
and love them like I did you. And that begins
to produce some things. Research tells us when
a city sees about 10 % of the population converted
to Christ, you begin to see a ripple effect.
Then educational, governmental, corporate, and
entertainment cultures, they get transformed.
But they don't get transformed by external power
and saying, this is the way it's going to be
because we're going to say what happens in a
country. They get transformed historically and
biblically because how we live transforms things
from the inside out. The values are so attractive.
It's not you Christians against us. It's you
Christians meeting the deepest needs and living
the life. I wish I had a marriage like yours,
the way he repaired it. I wish I had a relationship
with my kids like yours. I wish my finances were
in order at a time like this, like yours. I wish
I experienced peace the way I see you do. Rodney
Stark's in a very interesting book that's probably
worth reading. He's a secular author. I don't
know if he's still a secular author because this
book, I think, rocked his world. He wrote a book
called The Rise of Christianity. He's a sociologist
and he wanted to figure out, because it didn't
make any sense to him, what were the cultural
or sociological issues that in the first century
could begin with a few thousand people and by
the fourth century, actually, 313 A .D., have
the majority of the population of the Roman Empire
be followers of Jesus. It was estimated there
was about 60 million people in the Roman Empire
at 313, and about 33 million of them were followers
of Jesus. And there's no book of Acts, there's
no miracles, there's no this, no that. All he
does is he's looking at the research. And as
he looks at it, he realizes in the first century,
there's two epic plagues that wipe out, at times,
a third of the whole population. And so the elite
run to the hills and run away. But there's one
group that feed people, nurse people, give them
food, and in many cases, lose their lives. At
times, whole towns, two -thirds of towns would
be lost. This happened twice in the first century.
And out of all his empirical data, what he says
is the Christians loved people. The Christians
cared. The Christians didn't change the culture
externally. What happened was the people that
were left were Christians or the people that
Christians loved. And when your family members
have died and these are the people that loved
you and cared for you, there were great conversions.
Later on in the next few centuries, Starks points
out that there were three major cultural issues
that destroy a culture. Number one, he said there
was no sanitation and there was ethnic division.
Number two, he said the treatment of women was
deplorable. And third, he said we had a situation
where all around the known world, infanticide,
children were routinely drowned. And what the
church did is they expressed the goodness of
God. And they began to clean up and find cultural
solutions that were creative to sanitation. They
elevated women as co -heirs of the grace of God
and in their relationships treated them quite
differently than a piece of meat to be passed
around or to be used. And they began to pick
up the children from the dumps and raise them
themselves. And he said it was this internal
magnification of the, he wouldn't call it the
grace of God because he didn't use those terms,
or the goodness of God. But from a cultural perspective,
do you get that's what God wants to do? This
is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Breakthrough
begins when we make room for God to work in us
first. That's the pattern throughout Scripture
and church history. We'll hear again from Chip
in just a moment, so don't go away. As you think
about what needs to change in your own life,
Let me tell you about a resource that can help.
It's a free 10 -day devotional from Chip called
Psalms of Hope. You'll journey through three
powerful psalms, Psalm 1, Psalm 15, and Psalm
23. The format is straightforward. Chip provides
10 minutes of teaching each day. Then you take
10 minutes to pray and meditate on what you've
learned. just 20 minutes daily for 10 days. If
you're feeling spiritually stuck, or if you need
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work in your life, these ancient songs will speak
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Well, now once again, here's Chip. As we close
today's program, I realize we have really covered
a lot of material. And as my wife often reminds
me, Chip, you talk so fast. So let me encourage
you, if you happen to be in the car or on the
treadmill, or maybe there's some kids in the
back seat, or you're on one of those Pelotons
and you're grinding it out, let me encourage
you to go to livingontheedge .org and download
the message notes. When I taught this for the
first time and then I began to share it in small
groups, I have to tell you, I watched God break
through. I watched God do things in people that
they thought were impossible. And what I want
to remind you is that it doesn't happen just
by listening and hearing and intellectually acknowledging.
What we learned in today's message is God sovereignly
works in the world. Means right now, at this
moment, he's working. He's working in your circumstances,
the good and the bad, what you think is ugly
and difficult. He's orchestrating things. It's
like that picture of the beautiful tapestry.
And when you look on the one side, it is really
beautiful. But if you look on the backside, I
mean, there are knots and strings and all kind
of junk. And God is orchestrating things in your
life to bring about good. And many of those knots,
many of those strings, many of the difficult
things, he's really preparing you. He's creating
a new level of dependence as you lean in and
as you seek him. He wants to bring about the
best in your life. But often, are you ready?
It gets harder or it gets worse before it gets
great. All through scripture. Remember the disciples
when it was like, hey, there's 5 ,000 people.
And hey, by the way, you guys feed him. And they
go, it's impossible. He says, well, what do you
have? God allows impossible situations to create
dependency that make you and me lean in in a
way like never before. And then when we get to
the end of ourselves and we trust him, there's
breakthrough. In our next program. I'm going
to be sharing the personal path to breakthrough.
Don't miss it. What does God need from you to
unleash His breakthrough power? I'm Dave Drewy,
inviting you to find out tomorrow on Living on
the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored
by Living on the Edge.