Living on the Edge

Dave Drouin: Today on Living on the Edge, Chip welcomes guest pastor John Dickerson.

John Dickerson: So this is my prayer for you this week. Wherever you are in your journey, just say God, I want to learn this broken heart for the lost. And then I don't just want to walk around brokenhearted. I want to have boldness to tell people about Jesus, invite them to Jesus. So I want to ask you right now, no matter how intimidating that might sound, just ask God right now. God, would you give me boldness to start asking spiritual questions?

Dave Drouin: Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouin. If the idea of sharing your faith makes your palms sweat a little, you're in good company. Today guest teacher John Dickerson continues our series Hearts on Fire, How God Sparks Revival, with a message on what he calls brokenhearted boldness. He'll talk about what really keeps most of us quiet, what should motivate us instead of guilt, and why some of the boldest believers in history didn't start out that way at all. If you have a Bible nearby, we'll start in the book of Acts chapter 1.

Here's John continuing brokenhearted boldness.

John Dickerson: So God commands us. He says, go into all the world, preach the gospel to all creation. Why? Because he loves people. He doesn't want people suffering. He doesn't want people living in self-inflicted judgment. He doesn't want people to be dying and lost. He he came to reach the lost, and then he passed that on to us. And what we was asking God this week is God, make me like you were, I'll see people with your compassion, and I'll I'll then learn their name, and I'll ask them questions about their life. And as you ask legitimate questions and you show legitimate interest that you care about them, then it's not weird to ask them, hey, so what are your spiritual beliefs?

Like, you know, most people love to talk about themselves. And so just just ask them questions, get them talking about themselves, and then just gently turn it that way. Ask God to give you the courage for that. Another easy entry point is ask God for the courage to invite friends, family, people you know to church. That's kind of like the entry level, right? You are not having to open the Bible and explain the gospel yourself. That's like awesome. But entry level just, hey, you want to come to church with me sometime? And it doesn't have to be weird.

You can just let them know if it's someone you see and they know you, hey, God's really working in my life. He's giving me peace and hope, things I can't really even put into words. I'd love that for you. If you're ever interested, I I'd love for you to come and check out Jesus with me. There's no greater joy than connecting a soul, an eternal soul, to the source of the universe, the Father in heaven, who is the source of peace and life and hope and joy. What if it became the norm in our church for every adult to bring at least one person to Jesus every year?

That is not a crazy goal. Let's pray for that as a church. Let's work for that like it all depends on us while we pray for it like it all depends on God. Lord, let every adult and every teenager in our movement invite someone to Jesus. Could you imagine the church would double? And then the next year it would double again. And pretty soon Central Indiana would be experiencing revival. The third reason why sharing Jesus matters is that it exhibits the heart of God. In other words, it it shows if you're growing spiritually because the goal as a Christian is now as you surrender to Jesus, you become more like Christ.

Christ came to seek and to save the lost. And so part of spiritual maturity is I'm going to deny myself in order to seek and save the lost because that's how Christ lived. Philippians chapter 2, Jesus Christ made himself nothing when he left heaven. He took the very nature of a servant. And then being found in human likeness, found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. According to Philippians 2, what did Jesus do to reach us? Did he step up or step down? He stepped down. Did he stay in his comfort zone or did he leave his comfort zone?

He left his comfort zone. Aren't you so glad that someone told you about Jesus? Aren't you so glad that someone woke up enough spiritually to invite you to church or to say, hey, there's a way to have your sins forgiven or however they told you about Jesus? In the 1930s in Ypsilanti, Michigan, there was a guy named Earl Peters who worked on the Ford Motor Company assembly line. Earl Peters was an awake Christian. He'd show up every day for his shift on the assembly line, and he saw all the other line workers as eternal souls who needed Jesus.

Next to him there on the assembly line was a young man named Mark. And Earl Peters started to share the good news of Jesus with Mark. Mark was very resistant. Now at overtime, I mean they're standing next to each other all day every day stamping parts. Earl Peters keeps telling Mark about Jesus, and the day finally came when this young man named Mark surrendered, prayed to receive Jesus as his savior. Earl Peters got him a Bible, taught him that he needs to be part of a local church, taught him how to pray. And Mark soon really was growing in the Lord, decided to become a pastor.

Today there are thousands of people in heaven because of the pastor who got saved by a Ford assembly line worker. That pastor then raised his family to love and know Christ, and his son became a pastor. And thousands more people are in heaven because of Mark, the assembly line worker's son. And then he had four sons, and I'm the youngest of those. Mark, the assembly line worker, is my grandpa. And there are thousands and thousands of people in heaven because of one guy in coveralls on a Ford assembly line who said, I'm not just here to get a paycheck.

I'm not here so people will like me. I 'm not just here thinking about my life and obsessed with myself. I 'm here to tell people about Jesus. God the Father and Son sacrificed their comforts to reach you. Now they pass the baton to you, and they call you to deny yourself in sacrificing your comforts to tell others. What blocks us from telling people about Jesus? Our own ego and our own busyness and distraction. We're too busy or we fear rejection. You realize when we fear rejection what we're doing, we're choosing our own temporary ego over someone else's eternal well-being.

Can you imagine when that person stands before God and they say, wow, John knew all this? And he saw me every time he came into workout or every time he got a coffee, John knew all this? But he cared more about me liking him for a few years on earth than me having eternal life. Lord, I repent of that. Forgive me. Forgive me for not having the heart of Jesus for the lost. What should motivate you? What should motivate you as you go out to reach the lost? I would suggest it's not shame and it 's not obligation.

If you leave here and you're like, wow, John really let us have it, I better be telling people about Jesus at my school or workplace. I've just been failing. Guess what? That motivation of shame and obligation, that'll fire you up for maybe a day or maybe a week. And then you'll say, I I'm not I can't live this way forever. Was Jesus when he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, was he motivated by shame or obligation? No, he was motivated by love. And this is why the sequence of these revival practices matters. You say, God, I'm urgent.

God, I repent. I need the flow between me and you to be unhindered. God, I want to start really praying for souls around me. Now because your relationship with God is unhindered, he starts to shape your heart to beat in time with his, and what breaks his heart starts to break yours. And God will embed in you a love for people that is not from your human disposition. People who don't look like you, don't think like you, don't believe like you, people who are far from you, people who hate you, you are going to look at them, and because you're growing to become more like Christ, your heart's going to break for them.

And you're going to love them. You're just going to long like, oh, if they had Jesus, they're they're striving so hard to meet these needs without him. And it's as you get the heart of God and you say, Lord, for your glory and out of your love, God wants your primary motives in evangelism to be compassion, love for God and others. There is an obligation. That is true. But as you grow in Christ, it actually becomes a privilege and an opportunity to get to connect people You get to save people's eternal lives. Only Jesus can do it, but you get to be the messenger.

Ask God to give you an overwhelming love for souls. Well, that's the second question that we wanted to ask in our time. How can you cultivate that kind of heart? And as I've just suggested, you start by just asking him, God, give me your heart for others. Cultivate a brokenhearted compassion by becoming more like Christ. How do you do that? Well, that's what the Revival Daily Devotional, the reason there's that little Bible study every day is kind of like spiritual training wheels to start training you to really become Christ like through daily obedience, daily worship, daily repentance and prayer.

Did you know that the organ You think of organs like a heart and lungs, it the spiritual organ of your of your growth. How do you grow spiritually? What's the spiritual organ of your growth? It's obedience. It's not just knowledge. Knowledge is dangerous without obedience. Obedience is how you grow spiritually. Someone asked me this last week, John, if a church were to go through the revival practices and use the devotional and these messages, how long would it take that church to experience revival? Sat back, I prayed for wisdom. You know what the answer to that question is?

Your church will move at the speed of obedience. You could you could teach all this material, and if the people aren't obedient to God, revival's not going to happen. And if you teach this material and the people are eager to obey and do it, it'll start happening.

Dave Drouin: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and his friend guest teacher John Dickerson. We'll return to today's message in just a moment. But first, life doesn't always let you sit by the radio at the same time every day. That's why there's the Chip Ingram app, today's program plus video teachings and so much more, all in one place whenever and wherever you're ready. Just search for the Chip Ingram app in your app store. Well, now here's John continuing today's message.

John Dickerson: And remember, we're committing to pray this out loud every day. If you're not yet doing that, join me and thousands of us. Mine's at my bathroom sink. I pray it out loud every night. Notice the second sentence, God, as I'm praying for nationwide revival of Christianity, I surrender myself to be used by you in this. So if you're a morning person and you're praying that in the morning you're thinking, as I head out to my workplace or I head out to school or I head out to see my neighbors or whatever's going on today, Lord, I'm surrendered today.

Use me today to play my part in the reviving that you want to bring to this land. Next step, you cultivate a broken heart of compassion for the lost by praying daily for the lost people in your life. As you begin praying daily over the names on your list, God will start to open your eyes to their deeper needs. You'll start to notice open doors. God will begin working in their hearts. I've got some great stories of that, but I don't have time to share them today. I want to keep moving through this. Notice this progression in the Bible.

It says for the Son of Man, that's Jesus, he came to earth to seek the lost and to save the lost. And then just like a relay runner passes the baton, Jesus says in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, now Jesus followers, little Christs, Christians, you go into the world and you be my witnesses. The baton is in our hands. Jesus has entrusted it to us. Now if you think, wow, John, that's frightening, that's intimidating, I don't know if I'm up for it. Let's close with that third question. How can you find the courage to be bold?

I'm an introvert. You might not know that. I recharge by being away from people. Um my brain is very observant, notices every little detail and emotion, and if I have too much human interaction, it just saps me. You might think as I stand up here that I just A lot of pastors are people people, they're extroverts. I'm the opposite. And I'm not bold and courageous by my nature or disposition. I'm not up here because of the way I 'm wired. And here's the beautiful thing about the spirit of God living in you. The spirit of God empowers you to do things that you could never do in your own human strength or disposition.

And as you walk in ongoing repentance, you're keeping the relationship with God clear. You're asking God to give your heart. You're fanning into flame the Holy Spirit, and he will start to give you impulses toward what is right and good and love for others and a boldness that you will never work up in your own courage. If you get the cheat sheet three answers to this question from scripture, I'm not going to unpack them all, so you might take a picture or something, but you grow in your courage by calling on the Holy Spirit to empower you.

If you haven't yet experienced some opposition as you're going through the revival study, you will because there is an unseen enemy of souls, and there is an active spiritual battle going on right now. And when you are consumed with the American dream and you just kind of go to church and Christianity's the U-Haul behind it, you're not a threat to the enemy. The moment you say, no, I 'm going to live the kingdom dream and the American dreams in the U-Haul trailer, it's along for the ride as long as it can tag along, but I'm really living for the kingdom, you become a threat to the enemy.

Now that you're living in ongoing repentance and the power of God is surging through your life, now that you're praying supernatural prayers for Brownsburg, Avon, Carmel, Fishers, your school, your workplace, you're wrestling for souls and salvations, guess what? The demons take notice. And there will be some opposition in your life humanly and even spiritually. You don't have to fear it. Be aware of it, but don't fear it. And if you look at the book of Acts, you see the greatest revival in human history. Church goes from 120 people who are hiding for their lives to 10,000 people who are willing to be physically stoned to death and boldly proclaiming, go ahead, take my life.

I know there's eternal life. I'm going to stand here and tell all of you about Jesus while you kill me. I'm in the courage. Why does the courage happen because of the Holy Spirit? So the Holy Spirit will empower you in this spiritual battle. And then secondly, other believers. You need to be running with some other Christians. I love it when I see young people in our services and they're sitting with other young people that you've got Christian friends who also love Jesus. Because as you start to get bold and you say, oh, I'm going to tell that classmate or that relative about Jesus, you'll have a few times where your hand gets slapped, right?

There'll be opposition. And they say, I don't want to hear about that. You're one of those judgy Christians. I had no idea you were one of those judgy Christians. And you think, oh man. Well, when you have other believers in your life, you go and you tell them, hey, I tried to tell them about Jesus. I think I messed it up. I don't know. And that other believer says, hey, way to go. You're making the effort. You're stepping out. God's going to help you. Let's pick you up. Let's dust you off. Let's get you back out there.

And then the third way you grow your courage is that you do step out of your comfort zone. Nothing grows in your comfort zone in life. And the image for this is just the little toddler or 4-year-old maybe at the edge of the pool. They don't know how to swim. They're afraid to jump in. But dad's there with arms up to catch them. It's going to take a lot of courage. They're going to have to step out of their comfort zone to learn the skill of swimming, but their good parent is going to catch them.

And it is the same as you learn to live these revival practices, it will take you out of your comfort zone. God will be faithful to you. Step out. Test him. He will show up. He will strengthen you. In the book of Acts, those 120 Christians are hiding for their lives. They're afraid that the same people who crucified Jesus would pull them out and crucify them. And then Jesus tells them in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, he says, you, weak and intimidated Christians, will receive power. This word power is the Greek word dunamis. It's where we get our word dynamite or dynamic.

This is an explosive power. This is a mountain-moving power. On the count of three, I want you to say power. 1 2 3 power. You will receive power. When? When the Holy Spirit is active in your life. Now the moment you proclaim Jesus as your savior, the spirit came to live in you, but you might not yet know how to walk in the spirit and experience his power. As you practice ongoing repentance, you're opening the door for the spirit to empower you. And look at the order of operations here. Jesus doesn't say, hey, go be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

Do this in your own strength and have a great strategy. And everyone learn to be an extrovert and pretend you have the spiritual gift of evangelism even if you don't. Nope. He says, don't go until you have the Holy Spirit. Then you will be my witnesses. And Jesus predicts not only will you change Jerusalem, you'll change the surrounding county and you'll change the surrounding region. That promise given to 120 frightened believers nine chapters later in the book of Acts, the church is now 10,000 people. And look where it is in Acts 9:31. The church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.

It expanded exactly as Jesus predicted. Revival spread. The church enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. How did the church live a revived church? They lived daily in the fear of the Lord. God, I revere you above any political party or any earthly authority. You are my source of security and hope. And how did they live every day? They were in couraged by the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit who was in Paul, who was in Peter, who was in John Wesley, lives in you. The Holy Spirit is the theme and the main character in the book of Acts.

It's what launched the largest movement in human history. The Holy Spirit of God works in power. It brings supernatural strength. He brings supernatural strength. Look at this in Acts 4, Peter and John running together get arrested. They get thrown into jail because they're preaching Jesus. People are tired of hearing about Jesus. They literally throw them in jail. Now you remember Peter, the last time he got challenged, do you know Jesus? Are you with Jesus? He says three times, no, no, I've got nothing to do with him. And then we saw on week two how Peter repented of that and was restored, and Jesus said, now go feed my sheep.

So Peter, who really caves under social pressure when he's intimidated, now he's got the Holy Spirit. What happens? Acts 4 verse 8, when they bring him out of jail to try him for his crimes, he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And he's a totally different person. He says, rulers and elders of the people, it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the very one you crucified. That's how we're doing these miracles. And then he tells him verse 12, guess what? Salvation it's not found in your temple. It's not found in your religion. It's not found in your politics.

Salvation is found in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given to humanity by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus. And Peter, yeah, who used to be this scaredy-cat, he's got this boldness. So this is my prayer for you this week. Wherever you are in your journey, just say God, I want to learn this this broken heart for the lost. And then I don't just want to walk around brokenhearted. I want to have boldness to tell people about Jesus, invite them to Jesus.

Dave Drouin: You're listening to Living on the Edge and guest teacher John Dickerson with the conclusion of his message brokenhearted boldness from our current study Hearts on Fire. To learn more about what John just shared, just go to the revivalproject.org/livingontheedge. Having a heart for the lost isn't something we can manufacture. It grows as God shapes our hearts to beat in time with his. That's the kind of steady daily growth that Chip Ingram's devotional book Growing Deeper in Christ was created for. This 365-day devotional gives you a simple place to meet with God each day, helping you intentionally draw near to him and allow his truth to renew your mind, reshape your desires, and deepen your love.

And since Christmas will be here sooner than you think, now's a great time to pick up an extra copy for a friend or family member. And it's also available in a new leather-bound edition. Your purchase from Living on the Edge helps fund this ministry and get powerful resources like this one into the hands of more listeners. Get your copies of Growing Deeper in Christ at a special price today available only at livingontheedge.org/offers. You know, we sometimes hear from listeners like Kelly who wrote, God is strengthening his people through this ministry and giving us a heart to share Jesus Christ with others.

Well, if God has been stirring that same heart in you, would you help us stir it in someone else? Give at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003 or put your gift in the mail and address it to Living on the Edge PO Box 3007, Suwanee, Georgia 30024. Well, now here's Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: Well, let's pause together today after we've listened to John's teaching. And let's do a little healthy introspection. Let's kind of decide right now uh to become light in the midst of the darkness that I live in and you live in. The thought of bringing up Jesus to let's say a neighbor or at the gym or at the coffee shop or just with a coworker. For some of you that would be like, oh man, I I just don't think I could go there. I I don't have that much power. I don't have that kind of personality.

And yet John said, somehow overtime we've kind of shrugged off the Great Commission, you know, going to all the world and make disciples. And literally uh the verb, the action, the command is to make disciples. And the first step is building relationship. The second step is finding some needs in people and just meet the needs whether you say much about Jesus or not. And as you meet those needs, the third step is tell them the hope that's in you. Tell them just personally what Jesus has done in your life. Now here's the point. The harvest is white.

God's already prepared people. He just wants you and me to get tapped on the shoulder to make a list of five names. Did you get that? Make a list of five names. If you didn't hear me, here's a thought, make a list of five names. Do I sound like one of those commercials that they want you to get the point? Make a list of five names. Pray for them daily, and then ask God where and how can I build a bridge. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. He wants to reach them and he wants to use you.

Dave Drouin: I'm your host Dave Drouin. And next time John Dickerson turns to a question every parent and grandparent wrestles with, how do you prepare the young people you love for an increasingly divided culture? That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.