Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, how do you know when you're walking in your power and your strength, or in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit? Today on Living on the Edge, I'll give you three characteristics so that you can know for sure when you're walking in the power of God. Stay with me.

Dave Drury: Hauled before the authorities, threatened and released with a warning, and the first thing Peter and John did was go back to their people and pray, not for protection, but for more boldness. They proved what it means to walk in the power of God. And that's exactly what Chip Ingram unpacks for us today.

I'm Dave Drury, and today on Living on the Edge, Chip takes us deeper into his series The Jesus Revolution. And don't go anywhere after the message because Chip will be sharing about our mid-year match, a special opportunity this month where every gift you give is doubled. More on that coming up. Right now, here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: In Acts chapter 4, there's four clear lessons about how the Spirit of God, living inside of you as his follower, will help you overcome your fear.

Lesson number one: Fear not, the Holy Spirit will speak through you.

Let's face it. All of us are pretty concerned that someone's going to ask you something, you don't know how to respond. Pick up the story with me in chapter 4, verse 5. The next day, the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so was Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and the other men of the high priestly family.

They had Peter and John brought before them, and they began to question them. And here's the question: "By what power or what name did you do this?" This man who was crippled and healed, he's standing in front of them, and they're saying, "Now, by what power or what name, how did you guys pull this off?"

Peter then, verse 8, filled with the Holy Spirit. "Rulers and elders of the people, if we're being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple, and are asked how he was healed, then know this. You and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed."

"He is the stone which you builders rejected, which has become the capstone." He's quoting Psalm 118. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

The second lesson from Acts 4 is fear not, the Holy Spirit will protect you. Notice what happens as we pick up the story in verse 13. "When they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized they were un-schooled, ordinary men."

"They were astonished, and they took note of these men that they'd been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who'd been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say."

"So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin, and then they conferred together. 'What are we going to do with these men?' they asked. 'Everybody living in Jerusalem knows that they've done an an outstanding miracle, and we can't deny it.'"

"'But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer anymore in his name.'"

"Then they called them back again and commanded them to speak or teach no longer in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, 'Judge for yourselves whether it's right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.'"

"And they had further threatened them, then they let them go, and they couldn't decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for all that had happened for the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old." Will you underline this one verse? "We could not stop or help ourselves from thinking."

It's unstoppable. But notice what? He says, he doesn't say, "We couldn't stop speaking about these intellectual arguments. We couldn't stop thinking about this obligation and duty." He says, "We couldn't stop speaking about what we personally have seen and what we personally have heard."

You know, when I hear some of us as pastors tell people about what they need to do in terms of being more active in caring and sharing for their faith, I think we push the wrong end of the stick. See, I think we're always telling people what they ought to do, ought to do, ought to do, ought to do.

Here's the deal. When you are experiencing the love of Jesus, and you're experiencing his power, when you see him working in you, when you hear his voice, you won't be able to stop telling people about what's going on. Because what's going to happen over time is you're going to start caring way less about what people think of you and way more about how much God thinks of them.

Notice the promise that Jesus gave. He says, "The Holy Spirit will protect you." Fear not.

And then notice the very last night. I mean, he knew these were people that lived with Jesus for three years. And on the very last night he said, "I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart. I've overcome the world."

He protected Peter and John. It doesn't mean you're not going to have a hard time. They had a night in jail, but God will protect you. You need to understand when you boldly step out and allow him not just through your life, but through your words to speak, he'll take care of you. He'll protect you.

I mean, he's God. And he loves you. And he loves those people that you care about, that so many times, right, you get right there, and the words are stuck right here and you just can't get them out. There is no other name given unto man under heaven by which we must be saved. You are the conduits. You are the greatest Christian some people know. Some people may never hear unless they hear through you and me.

The third lesson is fear not, the Holy Spirit will empower you.

Notice how the story continues in verse 23, and where and how they experienced God's power. "On their release Peter and John went back to their own people, and they reported all that the chief priest and the elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God."

Listen to this prayer: "Sovereign Lord," they said, "You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them." "You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant our father David." And then they quote Psalm chapter 2: "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one." Do you see what they're doing?

They were just taking baby steps. I mean, the morning, just it was just less than 48 hours ago. Peter's just on his way to a prayer meeting. He doesn't know anything anymore than you and I. On the way to the prayer meeting this happens, then the miracle happens, then he ends up in jail, then he's in front of all these really smart, powerful people, and stuff starts coming out of his mouth. When he got done with that, I bet John went, "Whoa."

"Man, where did that come from?" Oh, remember he said he would speak through us? Boy, that happened. And then they leave, and they go back and they tell the people, "This is what happened." And then they realize, "Wait a second. This is exactly what David prophesied." He said, "The nations would rage, they would come against his Messiah." And then notice what the text says. And that as they prayed to the God who created everything, who's in charge, who's sovereign.

What does he say? Indeed, he gives the examples. "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and with the people of Israel and this city took to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and your will had decided beforehand should happen."

"Now Lord, consider their threats," and notice his request, "enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

And then in response, kind of like God saying, "You boys, you're on the right track."

Verse 31, "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly."

Now, notice one line that may catch you is verse 29, verse 28 right above it: "They did what your power and your will had decided beforehand that should happen." God wasn't caught off guard by Judas. He wasn't caught off guard by Herod. He wasn't caught off guard by the religious leaders or by the Gentiles.

You need to understand there's a sovereign God over his story that we call history, and he's absolutely in control. However, he gave us as individual beings the freedom to make choices that we're responsible for. Judas, the Gentiles, Herod, Pontius Pilate, they freely made those choices that God was aware of. He is absolutely sovereign, and they're absolutely responsible and free moral agents.

Anytime you push either of those things to an extreme, you get in trouble. God's ship of history will arrive exactly where he determines it to be, but inside of that ship of history on the journey, we all make very individual decisions that we have the freedom to make and are held responsible for, that do make a very real and legitimate difference.

But Peter was saying from the big picture, God knowing his love for us, knowing the human heart, he would bring his son and allow these people to rage against him.

And notice what the issue here is: he empowers them.

Notice they didn't pray for protection. They prayed for more power.

See, something has happened. It's a real subtle thing. When paradigm shift and they happen real subtly, what happens is, you don't even see them happen, then pretty soon you're over here and you're using all the same words and your heart of hearts, as far as you know, doing exactly what you think is right, but the paradigm has shifted. This group of people actually believed that they were on mission, and their mission was to fulfill what Jesus told them, who'd raised from the dead.

They felt like their number one priority was to take this message of life, that people's eternity was hanging in the balance, and the creator of heaven and earth and all that there is had actually empowered them to express his love to people. They weren't trying to figure out how Jesus could make their life easier. They didn't pray, "Oh God, change the circumstances. Oh God, stop the persecution." What do they pray? "Give us power! God, will you enable us to do even more of what just happened?"

In a couple chapters, it gets worse in their persecution, and instead of whining and complaining, they thank God for the unspeakable privilege of being counted worthy to suffer for him. That's a little different than Christianity today, isn't it?

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge. Before we get back to today's teaching, I want to give you a heads-up about something happening this June. Living on the Edge is excited to announce a special mid-year match, a rare opportunity for your gift to be doubled, dollar for dollar, and have twice the impact. Chip has been talking a lot lately about who this moment is really for.

Chip Ingram: God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. He's looking for ordinary people who are willing to be filled with the Spirit and be used by him.

Dave Drury: Ordinary people, like you and me, because when we step up together, something extraordinary happens. That's what the mid-year match is all about, happening right now at livingontheedge.org. We'll have all the details for you after the message, but now let's continue with our study on The Jesus Revolution.

Chip Ingram: See, what's happened, the subtle shift is our consumeristic mindset, "Oh God, make my world work out," little by little by little has drifted into the church. See that paradigm shift changes everything. This group was trying to figure out how do we fulfill the agenda God gave us, not how do we get God to fulfill the agenda we think will make us happy.

And so he answers their prayer.

I couldn't help but see this. You know, they go through this, and as soon as they get out of jail, they came together corporately and they prayed. That's like before God.

And then their prayer was that they could be on mission. And then what we find is they gather in community.

See, you all need to understand, we're not trying to figure out how many people we can get inside this building and count that number and be happy with that. We're not trying to figure out how we can just sort of up everyone's moral quotient 15 or 20 or 30% and give everyone a little nice, "I'm a Christian."

We're trying to become Romans 12 Christians. We're trying to be authentic followers who are surrendered to God, who live separate from the world's values, have a sober self-assessment, who love each other, serving in love passionately, and supernaturally respond to evil with good. And the pathway of God, Old and New Testament, is that individual people who say, "I will discipline my life and arrange it to come before God."

"I'm going to get connected from the heart and get in community where the real me shows up and meets real needs for the right reason and the right way. And I'm going to do all that because I have a purpose and a destiny by the God who created me. I'm going to be on mission 24/7."

That B-I-O life brings about transformation in your home, with your roommate, at your work, in your neighborhood. That's the game plan. And so, it starts with baby steps. But after the baby steps, God's looking for a church and a group of people that do what? Walk in the power of God.

We can't do this. Everything I've described, the vision of this church, it's laughable in our strength. God's looking for some people that will walk in his power because what happens? Then the Spirit of God is working inside of you, and he's doing supernatural things because, have you ever thought, God lives inside of you if you're an authentic follower of Christ?

I mean, think of that. Your expectations ought to be pretty high. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

Now, you notice we talked about fears and did you notice each time there's a promise? Notice what Jesus promised in John 15:16: "You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit will last or remain."

"Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." So what did they ask? They asked for more power. This is the very last night again, John 15. What's Jesus saying? "You're on mission. I chose you. You're on my team. There's something to do. And you should produce fruit is first and foremost the in-character quality, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, that you'll become like Christ, and then you'll fulfill that mission."

Final lesson, lesson number four is fear not, the Holy Spirit will provide all your needs.

So one of our fears is you start getting generous with your time. You start taking, get vulnerable with people, you know, you start getting generous with your money. You know, down deep, all of us are like, "Ooh, what about me?" Right?

I mean, I'm all for being like Jesus, but I'm thinking, "If I do this, what about me? What about my needs? What about my spiritual needs, my emotional needs, my financial needs, my social needs?" And so what we do is we create this little box and say, "God, I want you to know, I'm really all in, as long as it's inside that box."

Right? I mean, don't take me too much out of my comfort zone, whether that's financially or socially or geographically, but God, I really, and as you grow, oh, I made a bigger box.

And here's what the Holy Spirit wants you to know. He wants you to know, you know what? Stop thinking with the small pie mentality. The small pie mentality means it's people who think the world is filled with limited resources. I mean, the God who spoke the world into existence, what do you need he can't give you?

You need some money? Give you some money. You need some faith? He'll give you some faith. You need a friend? He'll give you a friend. But he gives those things to what? To people that are on mission.

Notice, well, how does he do that? We pick up the story in verse 33: "All the believers were one in heart and mind," unity. "No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything that they had." "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all."

"There was no needy person among them, for from time to time." This isn't socialism, it wasn't communism, it was voluntary. But there was this love for one another, and so from time to time, I mean, you got to remember, it's a startup, right? Startup needs an infusion of capital. It's a startup group with startup leadership that's going to change the world, and so they were sharing and helping one another as a continual basis, but it was voluntary, you didn't have to do it. And then from time to time, some of the people with significant resources said, "You know, if we're going to get this thing off the ground, and if we really care about one another, you know, man, I got two homes, I don't need two. I got four of these, I don't need four." And so they would sell some of their property, and notice what they do. They'd bring it to the apostles' feet, and they distributed it to anyone as they might have need.

Here's Jesus' promise. Jesus said to you and me, when you fear, "What about my needs?" But seek first his kingdom. There's the paradigm shift. His rule, his agenda, his mission, and then his righteousness, being like him, being loving like him, being kind like him, being pure like him, being holy like him. Seek first God's agenda, God's kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

See, if you had one of those highlighters, if I had a yellow highlighter, and we were like a second-grade class, I would say, "Okay, everyone, put your notes down, please." And then I would take that yellow highlighter and then in big bold words across, sort of horizontal, those notes that you have, I would write F A I T H, so you could still read all the notes, but you'd realize at the end of the day, what God is saying is, Jesus made promises. You're on mission. It's faith.

Everyone in the world is either going to live by fear or by faith. You fear rejection, you fear the future, you fear the stock market, you fear what other people think. All your fears are what dysfunctions grow out of. Or you step back, you either fear stuff or you fear God. Everybody fears something. But if you fear God, then you live by faith.

And you say, "God, I'm afraid to live any other way than the way you want me to." And yes, it is reverential awe, but it's also he's the all-knowing, all-powerful consuming fire who's put me on mission. It's not like, I hear people pray like it's negotiations, "Well, I know you created everything there is, and, you know what, I think the top three look pretty good to me, but I'm really not interested in numbers four and five." Like, who are you talking to?

You know? God's commandments aren't like a salad bar that, but what happens is if you could just understand how deeply you're loved. He that spared not his own son, how would he not freely give you anything and everything you need? He's so for you, but you need to be positioned to be blessed.

You know, instead of the sort of guilt route, what I've learned, when God helps me begin to see other people, because, you know, it says when you're walking in the power of the Spirit, what's the evidence here? They're unified, right? They're bold, and they're generous. When God's Spirit is working in an individual, in a group's heart, you will find a group of people that are bold, they're unified, and they're very generous.

And what I've learned over the years is trying to muster that up doesn't work. But when I can see through the lens of others' needs, God does something in my heart where I want to extend the money he gave to me, or the time he gave to me, or the gifts he gave to me, to really care about other people.

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, completing part two of Learning to Walk in the Power of God. Well, don't go anywhere. Chip has something important to share about the mid-year match in just a moment. When the Spirit of God fills a group of people, three things show up: they're unified, they're bold, and they're genuinely generous. That's not a program, that's not a stewardship campaign. That's what happens when people stop asking God to make their world work and start asking him how to make his kingdom come. That's what The Jesus Revolution is all about.

And did you know every message in The Jesus Revolution series is available on the Living on the Edge podcast? So if you've missed any part of this study, you can catch up anytime. Full-length sermons are also available through the Chip Ingram Sermon podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Unified, bold, and generous. That's the description Chip gave of a Spirit-filled community.

Well, here's Chip to tell you how that description is coming to life right now through Living on the Edge, and how you can be part of it.

Chip Ingram: Peter was a fisherman, not a theologian, not a polished public speaker. In fact, the last time it got difficult, he denied even knowing Jesus, three times. But in Acts chapter 2, that same Peter stood up in front of thousands and preached with such power that 3,000 people were saved in a single day. So what changed? The Holy Spirit. And that's the whole point of The Jesus Revolution. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. He's looking for ordinary people who are willing to be filled with the Spirit and be used by him. You know, as I've studied the scripture all these years, if I had to summarize the entire Bible, the Bible is about God delighting in using ordinary people to extend exceeding grace to undeserving recipients for his glory. You know, 50 years ago, I was a basketball coach, coaching high school kids, helping a few college kids, just trying to walk with God the way God called me to and what I knew. I wasn't a theologian. I never dreamed I'd be a pastor. God's looking for ordinary people like Peter, and ordinary people like me, and ordinary people like you, but the next step is to step out, to be used, to get in the game, to join the movement. And right now, you can make a real difference in the lives of people, not only with your prayers and your personal life, but when you give to Living on the Edge this June, your gift is doubled, dollar for dollar. It's ordinary people like you and me, gathering together, coming together and saying, "You know what, this revolution is going to go on. We want to be a part of it." And you can make a real difference by giving this month. Thank you for whatever God leads you to do.

Dave Drury: Ordinary people, extraordinary God. That's the whole equation. Step into the movement today by joining the mid-year match, and have your gift of any amount doubled, dollar for dollar, all this month. To give right now, just go online to livingontheedge.org, or call us at 888-333-6003. You can also send your donation through the mail by writing to us at Living on the Edge, Post Office Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30302-4. Every ordinary dollar becomes an extraordinary one when it's matched. Don't wait. Give today and watch God multiply it. I'm Dave Drury, coming up, something has gone wrong inside the early church. Chip Ingram names it, and the warning is as urgent today as it was in Acts chapter 5. Join us next time on Living on the Edge.

Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.