Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
What if normal life for you consisted of major
breakthroughs in destructive habits and behaviors?
I mean, what if victories over anger and greed
occurred on a regular basis? And you begin to
think, oh, this is normal. This is how God works.
If you long to see that happen in your life,
stay with me. Today on Living on the Edge, Chip
Ingram continues our series, Experience Breakthrough.
We've learned how to recognize barriers, develop
courage, and start small. But here's the critical
question. How do you sustain breakthrough so
it becomes habitual rather than occasional? Through
the dramatic life of King David, we'll discover
the answer. Today, Chip reveals five specific
practices that kept David experiencing breakthrough
regularly. Here's Chip Ingram with his message,
What's Next? Making Breakthrough Your New Normal.
Breakthrough. It's unleashing God's supernatural
power into your impossible situation. And we
said, you know something, that's what God wants
to do. Now, it's been really interesting. I've
gotten emails, conversations, breakthroughs,
people's marriages coming back together, a business
guy that started something at his company. I've
been praying with a guy for about three years
about a relationship that he has where, boom,
God's working. Here's the question. We're praying
to an all -powerful, all -loving, all -knowing
God who says, I want to heal, I want to bless,
I want to restore. And he basically said to his
disciples then and to us, his followers now,
I expect you to do the impossible. Right? He
said to his disciples, you feed the 5 ,000. And
they're going, we don't have the resources. He
says, well, you bring what you have to me. I
want to use you to do the impossible. We pray
to the God who says, I am the Lord, the God of
all flesh. Nothing is too difficult for me. We
pray to the God who says, ask of me and I will
show you great and mighty things that you do
not know. We pray to a God who says his eyes
are going to and fro throughout the whole earth
that he might strongly support those whose hearts
are fully his. We pray. In the name of the one
who said, all authority and all power is given
to me. And now I send you out to make followers
of every ethnic group on the face of the earth.
And not just to share by your words, but by your
life and meet their deepest needs. And by the
way, I will be with you 100 % of the time to
meet every need and help you in anything you
need to do. And so the question that's come to
me is, yeah, you have to step out and it requires
faith and courage. But how do we take what's
beginning to happen in many of our lives and
make it the new normal? How do you get where
next Monday and the Monday after that and the
Monday after that and the Monday five months
from now, you wake up, it's time to go to work
and you have this expectation that God is going
to do something impossible and supernatural in
you and through you in everyday life. That's
what we're going to talk about today. Sometimes
I think a picture is really worth a thousand
words. And we're going to take a snapshot of
a man's life who all through his life, God did
the impossible through him. The scripture says,
for that which was written in earlier times,
speaking of the Old Testament, was written for
our instruction. That through perseverance and
encouragement of the scriptures, we might have
hope. And so here's the message. I want you to
picture this. We're going to take a snapshot
of a breakthrough person in the Old Testament
named David, starts as a shepherd boy, becomes
a king, and takes a nation to its pinnacle, passes
it off to his son. And then what we're going
to do is we're going to peek into his personal
journal. We're going to... get to hear what went
on inside of his heart. What was the inside journey
like? How was it that despite his ups and downs
and struggles, that God continued to do the impossible
from the time he slayed a giant to the time that
he raised millions and millions of dollars to
build a temple for his great God? So with that,
let's do a little overview of his life. Many
of you will be pretty familiar, but some of us
didn't grow up in church and never opened the
Bible until we were adults. So, first of all,
David is an unlikely choice. The context is this.
The nation has rejected God as their king. They
said, we want a king, so they chose their own
king named Saul. And Saul had a very good but
brief start. And then he became proud. He became
disobedient. And pretty soon... God said, you
know, I can't use him anymore. And he said to
his prophet Samuel, I'm going to choose my king.
I want you to go to this house, the man's name
Jesse, get his family together, and I want you
to go there and I'll tell you which one will
be the king. And so Samuel goes and he has his
boys line up, you know, one, two, three, four,
five, six. And the first one is strong, big,
handsome. And Samuel goes, this must be the one.
And God says, no, that's not the one. Don't look
at the height of his stature, his appearance,
because God doesn't see the way man sees. Man
looks on the outward appearance, but God weighs
the heart. And so each of the son comes by and.
God says, no, no, no, no, no. And finally, Samuel
says, do you have any other sons? He goes, well,
you know, I've got one more, but he's the youngest.
And by the way, this is the smallest tribe, which
is the most insignificant. So now he's going
to choose the youngest son. I mean, he's not
even important enough to make the meeting. He's
out just tending the sheep. And Samuel says,
we're not moving on until. He comes, so David
comes, and he takes a flask of oil and anoints.
And even our word Christ means the anointed one.
It means chosen, and the anointing of God always
has the power to do a great task for God. And
so he takes the most unlikely, the youngest,
a teenage boy, and says he's going to be the
king. to have your mind swirling and realizing
there seems to be a theme in this series. God
keeps choosing unlikely people that no one else
thinks can do anything. And I don't know about
you, but that gives me a lot of encouragement.
Well, what's his first big breakthrough? He's
an unlikely candidate, but his first impossible
thing that he does is he's anointed, but like
it works with us, God speaks to us, but often
there's a journey and a time and a process. And
so they're at war with the Philistines. 1 Samuel
17. And as they're at war with the Philistines,
they have this giant named Goliath. He's about
nine feet tall. He's huge. And he comes out every
day taunting the armies of God. And you can picture
this valley on one side of the Israelites and
on the other side of the Philistines. And he
comes out and basically says, let's have one
big war. You bring out your best warrior and
whoever wins takes all. And every time he comes
out, the king and the warriors tremble in fear.
And David is on an errand. His dad says, I want
you to take some grain and take some cheese and
take it to your brothers. They're out on the
front lines. And he takes it. And as he gets
there, this event happens before his eyes. And,
you know, he's naive and idealistic and he doesn't
know much. Kind of the kind of people that God
tends to use. And he hears all this. And in his
mind and heart, he's going, how can these people
stand around when they, the things they're saying
against our great God? And if you know the story,
he ends up volunteering. He goes to the king.
And then we find an impossible situation where
a teenage boy without any armor just takes what
he does have, a sling and a stick. And he slings
that thing and hits him right in the middle of
the forehead and he drops and then he grabs his
sword and finishes the job. And I mean, it's
impossible. A teenage boy slays. This great giant.
And so what we see is, okay, God chooses this
improbable person. He has this amazing event
that happens. Now let's peek into what happens
after breakthrough. If you want a very, very
long, this will take a pot of coffee, or all
afternoon. From 1 Samuel 18 through the rest
of 1 Samuel and all the book of 2 Samuel is the
journey of David's life. And as you read it,
what you find is that although God does impossible
things in and through him. There's sort of a
good and then there's a bad and there's even
some ugly. The good is he's exalted after he
kills Goliath. He has fame. He gets positioned
in the army. He ends up getting to marry the
king's daughter. He gets respected. There's wealth.
Out of this process, he forms maybe the deepest
and best relationship of his life with a brother
named Jonathan. He has blessing, reputation,
and eventually he becomes king. The bad is that
the king, whose carnal gets jealous, Saul, there's
betrayal. And then he's persecuted. He's running
for his life for about a 10 -year period. He's
hiding in caves. He's separated from his family.
The king gives his wife to some other guy. And
so one of the reasons I wanted to choose David
is as I've prayed for you all, and you give me
emails and conversations, you take these steps
of faith, and some of you have decided you're
going to go to counseling, and others have flown
across the country to apologize or make restitution
with a parent, and multiple things are happening
as you tell me you're taking steps of faith.
Here's my concern. Sometimes we have this sort
of American notion, you know, like once you do
the right thing, then everything's going to be
rosy and wonderful, right? You know, I went to
counseling. Well, actually, usually they dig
up a bunch of junk before you get to the good
stuff. And your mate often gets more mad at you
and stuff comes to the surface. Believe me, I've
been there and done that. And when you go apologize
to someone and say, you know, I was in church
and I was thinking, I was reading the Bible and
God spoke to me and I just want to, you know,
you're thinking to yourself, I'm going to apologize
for my 10%. I really think it was their 90%.
And you own your 10 % and they go, yeah, let
me tell you about what you, and you're thinking,
wait a second, God. Or you decide you're going
to go public at work and you get ridiculed. All
I want you to know is when you take steps of
faith and God's favor is poured out, it often
gets more difficult before it gets better. And
you need to understand is that that's when a
lot of people bail out thinking, oh, I must have
done the wrong thing. No, you didn't do the right,
wrong thing. All God's impossible grace into
difficult situations are in the context of a
hostile environment. And it's very, very difficult.
And part of his power and grace is enduring through
him and watching him work. And so David, he's
anointed king, but for 10 years, he's dodging
spears, running for his life, eating off the
land. And then he eventually becomes king. He
sees God's favor. Tremendous things happen. He
takes control over all militarily. But there's
some ugly. He's a great man. He's a great leader.
He's a great warrior. He's a great psalmist,
musician. But he's at the wrong place at the
wrong time one day. And in a moment of weakness,
he takes another man's wife and he commits adultery.
After he commits adultery, like many of us, his
cover -up is worse than his sin. And he tries
to make it look like the baby is going to be
this other man's and he can't get the man to
fall for his plan, so he has him killed. And
so for a year, this great man of God lives with
a secret. He's committed adultery, he's committed
murder, and then he's confronted. And what makes
David a great man is not his history, not that
he ever did everything right. I mean, those are
big. But when confronted, he owned it, and he
was honest, and he repented. And there were consequences.
But he was restored. And by the end of his life,
he was a man that had a knowledge of God and
a view of God that he sought to pass on to others
that we live with today. And many of them are
in the Psalms. It's kind of his personal journey
that he put to music. He wasn't the best father
in the world. He had moments where his pride
got him in big trouble. In fact, one of the things,
you know, I didn't grow up as a Christian. When
I read the Bible, one of the greatest testaments
that it's actually the word of God is if you
were trying to write a book about religion and
get people to buy it, you wouldn't include this
stuff. I mean, read about other, you know, quite
leaders or religious movements. I mean, they're
bigger than life. I mean, you wouldn't say that
one of the greatest men committed adultery and
murder. But God wants you to know and I know
that there's a journey. And he does want to do
impossible things and supernatural things, but
he does it through fallen, hurting people who
often make some big mistakes. But your failure
doesn't have to define the rest of your life.
In fact, here's David's view near the end of
his life. He's realized all that he's been through.
He's asked God and the people to join with him,
to raise some money, to build a temple instead
of this sort of tent that God is living in and
they're worshiping. So David blessed the Lord.
It's 1 Chronicles 29. In the sight of all the
assembly, David said, Blessed are you, O Lord
God of Israel. And then notice his perspective
of God. Our Father. Forever and ever. And this
is how he sees God. Yours is the greatness and
the power and the glory and the victory and the
majesty. Indeed, everything in the heavens and
the earth. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and
you exalt yourself as head over all. And then
he looks back on all the stuff of life and all
the demands of life. Both riches and honor come
from you. You rule over all and it's in your
hands is all power and might. And it lies in
your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.
Now, therefore, our God, we thank you and praise
your glorious name. That's a picture of a man
who God has used from a shepherd boy to a king.
And that's now the view he has of God. In Acts
13 .22, we get the New Testament's picture of
God's view of him. Now think of where he's been,
what he's done. Both the good, the bad, and the
ugly. And when the New Testament writer inspired
by the Holy Spirit looks back, For I found David,
a man after all my heart, who would do all my
will. You're listening to Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our lesson
in just a minute. So with that picture, I want
to show you. A portion of his journal. Because
here's what I can tell you. God wants to do in
you, in your home, or with your roommate, in
your neighborhood or apartment complex, in this
city, in your job. What he did in and through
David. He wants to manifest his power in his
presence to heal, restore, and love, and communicate
to people how real he is and how much he loves
them. And the question we're going to ask and
answer is how did David habitually, that's the
key word, how did David habitually unleash God's
supernatural power into impossible situations?
And it's not the only Psalm, but I think in this
little portion of his journal, we learn five
things about who he is and five specific things
that he did that I can say in my life and you
can say in yours. You know what? I think if I
do that, I think if I seek to be that kind of
person, that I can have a journey for the next
10 or 20 or 50 years, however God gives you,
and I can habitually make Break through the new
norm. Let's pick up the story here. It's Psalm
27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked
advance against me and devour me, it is my enemies
and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though
an army besiege me, my heart, I will not fear.
Though a war break out against me, even then
I will be confident. And what we're going to
see is from his personal journey exactly who
he was. Who was he? In this first section, verses
1 through 3, he was a bold risk taker. He was
a bold risk taker. I want you to, if you will,
circle my light, my salvation, my stronghold.
Light is a force that automatically dispels darkness.
When everyone else was afraid of the giant, light
dispels the darkness. When he was hiding for
his life, light dispels the darkness. When he
felt like everything was overwhelming and his
family was taken away from him and they were
hijacked by a group of people, light dispelled
the darkness. And notice the little word, my,
my, my. This is personal. This isn't a philosophy.
It's not a worldview. God, Yahweh, Jesus is my
light. But he's more than just my light. He's
my salvation. In fact, you might write the word
deliverer. He's not speaking of his eternal salvation
here. He's saying, when I'm in trouble, God rescues
me. He delivers me. He saves me. He can save
this marriage. He can save this relationship.
He can save this business. He can save me out
of this addiction. That's what David's saying.
And therefore, whom shall I fear? He's bigger
than that. He's bigger than that. You either
have a really big God and small problems, or
you have really big problems and a very small
God. And then he says, when stuff comes together,
he's my stronghold. It's a picture of a place
where the enemy can't get in. It's a huge cave
with a fortress in front of it is the idea. And
no one can hurt you there. And he's declaring
something. This is why God used David. He declared
by faith. The Lord is my light. The Lord is my
stronghold. The Lord is my deliverer. I won't
be afraid. I won't be afraid. And then in your
notes, I want you to put a little box around
a few key words because he's not doing this like,
you know, writing a nice song. Put a box around
the word wicked. Put a box around the word enemies.
Put a box around the word army. And put a box
around the word war. Wicked, enemies, army, war.
Anybody have any enemies? Anybody feel like you're
going against life and it's really hard? Anybody
feel like there's foes, visible and invisible,
in circumstances, in finances, in struggles?
What's he saying? In fact, you know, he starts
with the wicked, then he goes to some enemies,
and then it's like, if a whole army, I mean a
whole army, or if an entire war comes against
me, what is he saying? I will be confident. Why
is he going to be confident? It's not because
he thinks he's stronger, better, wiser, or more
godly. It's because he knows who God is. And
so when you see God and know God for who he is,
you're a bold risk taker. Now, what did he do?
He trusted God. That's what he did. That's how
simple it is. He trusted God. He trusted God
with his future. He trusted God with his wife.
He trusted God with the uncertainty of, I'm anointed
as king. It's been seven years. I'm hiding in
caves, running for my life. My circumstances
don't seem to line up with God's promises. Anybody
in here have that going on in your life? This
is hard. This is difficult. This is painful.
This is unreasonable. This doesn't feel like
God loves me. He had over a decade of that, but
he trusted God. Question for you, are you trusting
God or paralyzed by fear? He refused to let his
fears determine his life. He just refused. My
fear of people, my fear of work, my fear of stepping
out, my fear of what other people think. He was
confident not in his power. He was confident
in God's. You might jot, if you would, Hebrews
11, verse 6. It keeps coming back to this. Without
faith, It's impossible to please God. And he
that comes to God or she that comes to God must
believe two things. Number one, that he exists.
Not theoretically, that he exists. He. Who's
the he? The all -powerful, all -knowing, sovereign,
king, lover, just one of the universe who created
all that there is. He exists. And here's then
the second part. And he's a rewarder. Of those
who diligently seek him. God's blessing. These
impossible things. This supernatural power. It
doesn't happen to everybody. It happens to people.
Who believe God to the point. That they step
out. Even though they're afraid. David. Was simply
a bold risk taker. He trusted God. Question.
Are you a bold risk taker? Are you a bold risk
taker in your relationships? Are you a bold risk
taker at work? Are you a bold risk taker in your
neighborhood? Second thing, in the next section,
we're gonna learn that he was a passionate worshiper.
That's who he was. Number two, a passionate worshiper.
And you say, well, Chip, where do you get that?
Look at verse four. One thing I ask from the
Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
He's declared, I'm not going to live in fear.
And now he's going to say, this is my personal
number one priority in life. One thing. One thing.
One thing do I seek. And what is it? That I may
dwell in the house of the Lord. Well, what are
you going to do? To gaze on the beauty of the
Lord and to seek him in his temple. Well, why?
because in the day of trouble he will keep me
safe in his dwelling. He will hide me in the
shelter of his sacred tent, and he will set me
high on a rock. And the result? Then my head
will be exalted above my enemies who surround
me. At his sacred tent will I sacrifice with
shouts of joy. I will sing and make music to
the Lord. David was a passionate worshiper. And
what did he do? He pursued God. He pursued God.
Did you see the word seek, seek, seek? It's like
he's trying to find different words. At this
point in Israel's history, they worshiped in
the tabernacle. He says dwelling, sacred tent,
sacred tent, temple. He takes three or four different
words and says. When I corporately come with
God's people into the presence of God and he
manifests his Shekinah glory and his power and
his presence and his beauty. And when I'm up
on the rooftop or when I'm meditating on my bed
or like I have this thirst like a deer panting
for water when I long to hear God's voice and
have him speak to me. He says, that's the number
one priority of my life. His passion was for
a person, not for prosperity. His number one
passion was for God himself, not for what God
could give him. And he arranged his time and
he arranged his energy around pursuing God. And
what he does, he praises him. He wants to behold
his beauty. He wants to praise him. And for some
of us, it's kind of like, well, I don't really
know how to do that. I brought three tools that
have been helpful for me because my confession
is... at least the first decade or so I was a
Christian, and I'm probably exaggerating, it
was probably more, praise was not a big part
of my life. I interceded, I prayed, I thanked.
But this idea of acknowledging who God is and
worshiping for who he actually is, which enlarges
your view. God says he inhabits the praises of
his people. And so a couple things happen. I
keep mentioning this book because I've been reading
it for over 30 years, but it's called The Knowledge
of the Holy, and it's three or four chapters
on the attributes of God. And as I begin to read
about the attributes of God, I begin to enlarge
my mind and my heart, and I would begin to praise
him for who he was. A book that has been instrumental
in my wife's life, Ruth Myers wrote a book called
31 Days of Praise. Praise will strengthen your
faith. Praise ushers you into God's presence.
Praise activates God's power. Praise helps you
overcome demonic opposition. Praise transforms
your perspective. And praise brings pleasure
and glory to God. And what I know is most of
us are busy and we come to God like we do other
people. I want to get this done. Could you take
care of this? God, I have a problem. Would you
take care of that? And basically for many of
us, our time with God is, oh God, will you fix
this, take care of that, or give me so I get
relief. David was a worshiper. He was a passionate
worshiper. In fact, can I give you an example?
if David was going to come to our services, he
would have been here five to seven minutes early
because David would have never dreamed that someone
getting up and declaring the truth of God's word
is more important than gathering and singing
praises directly to God. And yet we kind of live
in a day, our behavior always tells you what
you believe. So if you can come 10 minutes late
or 15 minutes late or eight minutes late and
you know the singing is just the singing. Actually,
we're not singing to one another. We're declaring
the praise of the holy creator of the earth.
He finds pleasure in it. His presence is manifested
in it. And it's not just reserved for corporate
worship. I'll meet a lot of people and say, oh
yeah, I missed the last couple weeks because
I wanted to do this and I wanted to do that.
But I watched it on the internet. I got news
for you. You can get content. The presence of
God doesn't show up on the internet. You need
to be gathered with God's people. And for some
of us, maybe loosen up a little bit. See, part
of us long to experience God's presence. We won't
let our emotions get involved. And maybe the
place to start is in a back bedroom. Put a pillow
under the door and sing to God. What you'll find
is your experience of him will change. His power
will get manifested and your problems will sort
of start shrinking. Another little book that's
been very helpful to me is called The Handbook
of Prayer by Ken Boa. And it's nothing but scripture,
but he just takes you through praying scripture
back to God. And when I have done that, it's
amazing. There's mornings I get up. I don't know
about you, but how it works. There's mornings
I get up. I don't even want to go to the day.
I don't want to face the problems. I got a list
this long. I can't get it done. There's two issues
I'm overwhelmed with. There's demands, right?
But if I stay there and go into my day that way,
it's usually not a pretty picture. And so I have
to stop and I just choose. God, I don't feel
like talking to you. Sorry. I don't feel like
reading your word. Sorry. But I want to remember
who you are. And so the first thing I usually
do, and this morning was, Particularly spectacular.
Is you know the dog wants out very early. And
I let the dog out. And then I turn all the lights
out in the house. And every morning I just look
up. And hope that there's a clear sky. So there's
stars. And this morning there was those puffy
clouds. In different places. And stars everywhere.
And a sliver of a moon. And I looked up and I
saw the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and
all these stars. And I was just reminded that
God who spoke those into existence and holds
them moment by moment by the word of his power
says to me, little old Chip Ingram, everything
you need, I'm here for you. I made all that and
I live inside of you. Just let me help you. And
you know what? He will. This is Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. David was a bold risk
-taker and a passionate worshiper, two qualities
that kept him experiencing God's power regularly.
We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment, so
stick around. As you think about making breakthrough
your new normal, I want to recommend a resource
that can help establish those daily rhythms with
God. It's Chip's free 10 -day devotional, Psalms
of Hope. The structure is simple. Chip teaches
for 10 minutes each day from Psalm 1, Psalm 15,
or Psalm 23, three psalms that shaped countless
believers throughout history. Then you spend
10 minutes alone with God in prayer and meditation,
just 20 minutes daily for 10 days. Today we studied
Psalm 27, which reveals David's heart for worship
and his bold trust in God. Psalms of Hope will
take you deeper into that same transformative
practice of meeting God through the psalms. Download
it free on our website, livingontheedge .org.
Search for Psalms of Hope and begin today. We
can freely offer resources like this because
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on the Edge has been helpful in your walk with
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to your phone so you can listen wherever you
are, whenever you want. Well, now here's Chip
with today's Talking Point. As we close today's
program, the temptation with everything we've
talked about in this series. is to very unconsciously
think, well, this is for someone else. I mean,
it's, you know, yeah, God does this in Scripture.
He does it for someone who's smarter than me,
more holy than me, knows the Bible more than
me, etc., etc., etc. And the reason I walk through
David's life is to remind you that David was
an unlikely choice, to remind you that David's
life after breakthrough was good, and then it
was bad. And then there's danger. It got ugly.
And then finally that there was recovery. And
he left a legacy for us where God would look
back on David's life and say, now there's a man
after my own heart. And it wasn't because it
was morally perfect for sure. And it wasn't because
he had it all together. I want to remind you
today, breakthroughs, supernatural unleashing
of God's power is for ordinary people. Would
you be willing to trust and believe that it can
happen in your life and say, God, will you show
me? And whatever you show me, I'll take the next
step. And if you do, God will work. Tomorrow,
we'll discuss three more practices that made
David a breakthrough person. I'm Dave Drewley.
Join us Friday on Living on the Edge. Today's
program is produced and sponsored by Living on
the Edge.