Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. If you’re finding it very difficult to be a bold, loving, public Christian in the world that we’re living in, I want you to know you’re not alone.

It is really hard to be the kind of follower of Jesus with the kind of challenges that it brings, the criticism that it brings, and just the downright pain that it can often bring. How do you keep faithful to the Lord when you feel like giving up? That’s today.

Dave Drury: The Apostle Paul was a murderer before he was an apostle. And yet he wrote, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." That's not false modesty, that's a man who understood grace.

Chip Ingram: Today Chip opens First Timothy chapter 1. Please open your Bible there if you have it with you.

Dave Drury: I'm Dave Drewry and this is Living on the Edge, continuing Chip's series called, "You Can Make Disciples, Personal Coaching from the Apostle Paul."

There's a special resource that perfectly complements our study. We'll tell you more about it later in the program. Right now, let's dive into our message titled, "Step Up!"

Chip Ingram: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope. To Timothy. And notice, notice the heart. My true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I urge you, when I left you in Ephesus, so that you would instruct certain people not to teach strange doctrines, which give rise to useless speculation rather than advance the plan of God, which is by faith. So I urge you now.

So basically, what he says is, Timothy, you know how much I care about you. Remember when I left, I said, remember to do this. I’m now urging you, you have to address this. In a word, you gotta step up.

And then notice the contrast. He says, you know, they’ve got all this stuff going on, this false teaching, but the goal of our instruction is threefold: love from a pure heart. And then secondly, from a good conscience. And finally, he says, from a sincere faith. And the word sincere means tested by sunlight.

Look at verse 6. Some people have strayed from these things. I mean, at one point in time, they were on track with this. Notice they turned aside to fruitless discussion. They just got talking about all kind of stuff. Then he, he begins to develop, what were they talking about? Wanting to be teachers of the law. Ego, pride. Even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make such confident assertions.

But we know that the law is good if it’s used lawfully, realizing the fact that the law was not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious. He says, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy, for the worldly, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of our blessed God, which I have been trusted.

So notice next, he’s going to give a little personal testimony. Don’t coaches do that a lot? Verse 12 he says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into his service, even though previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.

How’s that for, um, I got some issues of my own, Timothy. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the, put a little box around it again, the faith and the love which are found in Christ Jesus.

He says, it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance. And you might underline this in your Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Notice he goes, among whom I am foremost. Did you get the tense of the verb? He didn’t say, among whom I was.

And then notice the reason. Yet for this reason, I found mercy, purpose clause, so that in me as the foremost sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

And notice what he says: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. I think when he realized afresh, this is what happened to me, and he understood who God really is, he just broke out into praise. I don’t think this was in Paul’s notes.

And then notice he ends with a charge. This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them, you fight the good fight. Well, how? Keeping faith and a good conscience.

Now notice the bookends, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. And so, I hope, you know, you have a general understanding of the chapter. And then you’ll notice, uh, each, each time I’m going to give you what I call coaching nuggets.

So what I want to do is, I want to pull out what I think is the most important truth, and then our response. The most important truth, I.E. if you don’t remember anything else, but the goal of our instruction. The reason you read the scriptures, the reason you go to a Bible study, the reason you have fellowship, the reason you go to a men’s retreat, a women’s retreat, the reason that you have a mentor. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

It’s not that you’re religious, it’s not that you’re a little bit nicer than most people, it’s not so people think you’re a nice person. The goal is that you love God and you love people, and that’s not a feeling. It’s sacrificial, other-centered relationships where the life of Christ in you gets poured out to demonstrate His love for other people.

Let me give you my definition for love. I’m sure I’ve stole it from multiple different places, but I’m claiming it as my own now.

Love is giving another person what they need the most, when they deserve it the least, at great personal cost.

Roll that out and see if it works for the cross.

Love, a choice, not a feeling, is giving another person what they need the most.

Your wife might need acceptance.

Your son might need forgiven.

Your boss might need understanding. When they deserve it the least.

After the way she’s treating me? After what he went and did after I told him this is like the third time? After my boss has written me off? Love is giving another person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

And if you follow it, what you realize is you can’t do that, and I can’t do that, but God by His Spirit working in you through His word and the community of God’s people can supernaturally do that through you.

That’s what the Christian life’s all about.

The second truth is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

We can disagree with people, we can even be passionate in how we see things, but we’re called to love everyone. Our response is to fight the good fight.

Can, can we just start off saying it’s really, really hard to be a follower of Jesus? It takes a real man. Fight the good fight. Keep the faith in a good conscience.

And then notice, some have suffered shipwreck in regards to their what? Their faith.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

Need to understand that you gotta be really careful who you listen to, what you allow into your mind.

Some of the words we’re going to find is that they get shipwrecked, they drifted, they turned away. A lot of these aren’t like someone woke up and said, you know, I’ve been really following Christ for the last seven years, the last 30 years. I think today I’ll just blow it all off. It doesn’t happen like that.

Some incremental.

Most of the men that I have sat in tears as they have lost their families, often lost their job, lost their reputation after a sexual addiction or an affair, some that I’ve worked with recently. They didn't get up one day and go, hey, I think I’ll just mess my whole life up.

It’s a harmless flirting, just a casual, wonder what she’s doing after 20 years, high school? Just a, it was just a little pop-up thing. Don’t you, you guys get these all the time, you know, even from foreign countries, you know, click on this text or something like that. If you don’t know who it is, delete.

And every level we’re bombarded.

So what I tried to do is basically say, okay, I did my best to study this passage and say, in the first century, this person called the Apostle Paul, with his dramatic conversion and his writing of 13 books of the New Testament, had a personal relationship with one guy named Timothy that he loved deeply, who he left in a very volatile situation in a metropolitan area in Ephesus, and he said, this is what you need to do.

And then what I tried to do is say, okay, there’s, there’s, there’s, there’s a map there, that what was true in the first century, what are the takeaways for us? Where’s the application?

So Paul’s coaching for us, first of all, the subject is false teachers and teachings. That’s fair enough in this chapter?

The underlying issue is truth.

I mean, the underlying issue is, they’ve drifted, they, they’re confident, they say this, they’re saying that. The issue is truth according to the glorious gospel of our blessed God. That’s the underlying issue.

Here’s the underlying question: Am I willing to defend the truth of God’s Word in a hostile environment?

But that, that’s, that’s what I’m asking me. I put it in first first person.

Are you? Are you willing to defend the truth of God’s Word in a hostile environment? Truth about what’s right, what’s wrong. Truth about marriage, truth about the value of life, truth about false teaching, truth inside and outside the church.

Now, by the way, what you’re going to, what we’re going to learn is the Apostle Paul is going to say, you really have to stand for truth, but don’t jump to maybe how you think you do it.

He’s going to say, if the voice of truth doesn’t have velvet bumpers around it, then you don’t understand what you’re doing.

But you know, it kind of presumes that in order to stand for truth, you would, um, you’d know the truth and you’d believe the truth.

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And we'll continue this lesson in just a minute. If you've been blessed by this program and you'd like to discover more of Chip's Bible teachings, we invite you to check out our YouTube channel. Search Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram on YouTube, and be sure to subscribe while you're there. You'll find full video teaching series, life lessons with Chip, and content you won't see anywhere else. Again, just go on YouTube and search Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

Now, let's continue today's message.

Chip Ingram: In a cancel culture world, when you say one thing, like I, it’s not you, you don’t even have to be mad. I just don’t agree with you, and you can get canceled.

What I’m watching a lot of Christians do is, here’s how not to get canceled. You’re in conversations at work, you’re in conversations here, in our day, you’re in conversations in church, and it kind of comes up. You’re in conversations around the table.

We’re going to learn how to point things out, “I don’t want to be disagreeable. I certainly understand where you’re coming from, and you have every right to hold that position. Could I ask you a few questions about why you believe that?”

Because I’d love to share, if you give me the opportunity, with your permission, why I, I don’t think that’s correct.

And instead, what we’re having is people just, you know what, I don’t want one more argument. I don’t want people to cancel me. I don’t want to be viewed as.

Are you willing? And by the way, this, I, I’m not talking about out there, I’m talking about in your churches. There is a drift in the churches today like never before. There is a drift in some, I mean, bellwether institutions and universities that have drifted from what’s very, very obvious and very, very true, not on minor things, on big things.

And I wonder, am I willing to take a stand for the truth? Here’s the action: step up.

I mean, we all hear that, right? Every NFL season, well, coach, what are you going to do? You know, you lost your quarterback last week and, well, we’re just going to have someone step up. We just got to step up.

I mean, I mean, we so understand that in sports. Do you understand basically if there were two words, you know what Paul was saying to Timothy? Step up, man.

Yeah, I love you, I’m for you, I’ve been there, but at the end of the day, I command you in the presence of the living God, who lives in unapproachable light, invisible, immortal. Fight the good fight. Keep the faith. Step up.

That, that’s a word for me.

If I had a really good day, I think I could get us in a frenzy. Who’s going to step up? We will, we will. Who’s going to step up? We will. I can get you, okay. Anybody going to stand up, stand up, stand up? Right? I can get you all pumped up, and you’d leave out of here, you know what, it, it, it doesn’t mean you step up. It means we had a rally.

Anybody can have a rally.

There’s a world of difference between believing something, even believing something sincerely, and convictions.

You believe something until it’s tested. And by the way, can I tell you for all of us, you don’t know what you believe.

I, I mean, I know you think you know what you believe.

But you don’t know what you believe until it costs you something big and precious.

And are you willing to stand on that belief if it means rejection, or loss, or alienation, or even a job, or money? The unspoken need is to develop, right, the word convictions.

Um, I can’t tell you over the years, I’ve pastored for, gosh, almost 40 years. And, um, I’ve had all kind of families. Um, do you believe in life at conception? Absolutely.

And it’s interesting how people’s theology changes when their daughter, who has a full ride, gets pregnant, and they urge their daughter to have an abortion so she doesn’t lose her scholarship.

And I could give you a dozen examples.

And if all of us were honest, beginning with me, I really thought I believed certain things, and I found myself in sort of a situation where, wow, if if I step up and out on this one, I think I’m going to be the only one in the room. I just kept my mouth shut.

See, it’s one thing to, okay, how many of us believe we should be generous? There’s a good one. Right? Jesus is generous, right? Although He was rich, He became poor that we by His poverty might become rich. Right? It’s better to, more blessed even. God’s favor rest upon you. Better to give than to receive.

So how many believe that? Some of you are so smart. I ain’t putting up my hand because I, I know, I know where that next question’s coming. So, so then my next question would be, well, how, how many of you off the top give the first portion of your income to God’s work?

And, and, and, and are looking for graduated ways to keep increasing that percentage, realizing it’s all God’s and you long to help other people.

I was doing a series on generosity, so I took a clipboard, and I just hope no one would ever recognize me from our church, and I just said, I have a survey, excuse me. You know, people were walking away like this, like, but I had a clipboard, I said, please, it’s just one question. Just yes or no. Would you consider yourself a generous person? I just, I just ran to people.

90% of everyone I surveyed said, yes.

And so I asked all the people of our church.

But what they didn’t know is I knew over half of them don’t give anything. Zero, nada. What they didn’t know is that only 2.7% of Bible-believing Christians even tithe. There’s not a conviction.

But what the people that do have, have experienced this, how does it work that I, I give? And by the way, don’t just think, if you think money is, generosity is just about money, money is the training wheels of generosity. You start with your money, then your time, then your reputation, then, I mean, and then the more generous you become, give and it’ll be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over back into your lap. God does amazing things.

But, but just, my point is convictions. So let me give you a head, heart, and hands to develop convictions. Number one, know the truth.

John 17:17-19, Jesus’ last prayer. Here’s what He prayed. Father, set them apart or sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So first of all, you got to know the truth.

Uh, the Second Timothy passage talks about, study to show yourself approved to handle God’s Word. Learning the scriptures. Secondly, living the truth.

Uh, He would say to a group who had, uh, believed on Him, living the truth, John 8:31-32. To those Jews who had believed on Him, He says, if you continue in my word, in other words, put into practice or abide in it, you’ll know the truth.

And the truth will set you free.

Uh, Hebrews 3:13, this is why we’re here. But encourage one another day after day, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Left to myself, lest I hang out with other guys and have times to be honest and share, I just get thinking I’m doing way better than I am.

And then I get, I find myself in the ditch.

So you know the truth, you live the truth. And notice, uh, the first has to do with God’s word, and the second, I think you got to have a coach or a mentor.

Think you need someone who, who, who am I doing life with? Who can I be honest with?

And then finally, the hands is share the truth.

Jesus didn’t tell His group, well, you’ve been to this three year seminar, I’m checking out. I’ll see you later. Make sure you have all your green, yellow, and purple notebooks in order when I get back.

He said, I want you to go and make disciples of every people group, every ethnos.

And as you go, and it’s not like, you don’t need to go to China, you don’t need to go to LA, you don’t need to go to West Virginia, you don’t need to go to, you know, Afghanistan. Verbally, grammatically, it’s as you go, verb, make followers.

And the way you make them is you baptize them. You help them come to the point of, this used to be identity as a sinner, and now Christ has come into my life, and now I have a new identity as a saint, and I’m going to just physically be baptized to die to my old way of life, because I’ve been resurrected with Christ and it’s His power I live. And then it’s not just this big event, but then I want you to teach them to actually live out and obey everything I taught you.

And when that happens, man, it just gets so rich. And is it easy? Absolutely not. Is it awesome? Absolutely yes.

Dave Drury: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the end of a lesson titled "Step Up!" It comes from our current series called, "You Can Make Disciples, Personal Coaching from the Apostle Paul." To revisit any part of today's lesson, just go to livingontheedge.org.

You can also hear every message in this study on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe and take it with you all week. Or, check out the full length unedited sermons available over on the Chip Ingram Sermon podcast. Both are great listening options and available wherever you get your podcasts.

Well, Paul called himself the foremost of sinners, present tense, not past. And yet he received mercy. The point isn't guilt, it's amazement. That unceasing wonder at grace is what kept him going when the cost was high. Chip made clear the difference between a preference and a conviction. A preference costs you nothing. A conviction is what you'd still hold if it cost you everything. If you've been sensing some drift in that direction, Chip's book, "Yes, You Really Can Change" addresses exactly that. God's approval, not our performance, is what actually fuels lasting transformation. Right now, you can buy one and gift one to someone you know by going online to livingontheedge.org/offers.

You know, programs like this one reach people because listeners like you invest in the work. If this teaching has made a difference in your life, consider supporting Living on the Edge with a donation by going online to livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. If you're giving through the mail, write to us at Living on the Edge, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30024.

Now, let me hand things back over to Chip.

Chip Ingram: Thanks so much, Dave. You know, today is a sobering message in many ways. It’s a couple thousand years ago, but the real issue is, am I willing to defend the truth of God’s word in a hostile environment?

I mean, the truth of God’s word right now, in areas of morality is very unpopular. The truth of God’s word about Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life, like it’s unique, very unpopular. The truth of God’s word in terms of the value of life or family is, is very unpopular.

And you know what, it was just as unpopular then, in fact, more so because there was persecution where their lives were being taken to stand for Jesus. Can I just speak to you very directly and say, I know it’s hard. Don’t buy the lie. Don’t shrink back. Paul is saying to his son in the faith, step up. And what I want to tell you right now, step up. If it gets hard, step up. If you get some pushback, step up.

But step up with grace. Be winsome. Be loving. Be kind. But don’t back down.

Dave Drury: I'm Dave Drewry. In our next message, Chip Ingram challenges us to do something harder than it sounds, pray for everyone. That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.