Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, have you ever noticed that when you take a big step of faith, maybe it’s addressing an addiction, or maybe it’s starting a ministry, or maybe it’s saying I’m going to start reading the Bible on a regular basis, everything falls apart at the seams? It seems like when we really get committed and we take that step toward exactly what God wants us to do, it often gets worse instead of better. If you want to understand why and learn how to endure, that’s today. Stay with me.

Dave Druey: We all know faith requires sacrifice. But Chip Ingram says that sacrifice, painful as it may be, could save your spiritual life. Today on Living on the Edge, in his series You Were Made for More, Chip opens Nehemiah chapter 4 and makes a case from Scripture, from history, and from his own story.

When you take a genuine step of faith, expect a fight. Moses faced it, Elijah faced it, Jesus faced 40 days of it in the desert. Nehemiah faced it too, in the form of ridicule and sarcasm aimed straight at his worth. Chip describes the enemy’s first punch and Nehemiah’s remarkable response. Here’s Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: God wants to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. It’s not about being smarter than you are, it’s not about knowing more than you probably know, but it’s about having a dislocated heart, a broken spirit. It’s about having a time where you take a radical step of faith.

It’s developing a strategic plan. You need to discover where on the wall of God’s kingdom you make a personal commitment. Not an intellectual commitment, not an emotional commitment, not a when it’s nice and not raining commitment, but a commitment that says, "God, I will do what You show me to do, and I know it might get hard, but when it gets hard, I will be faithful by Your grace."

I have a concern because I’m having conversations and emails from people that God is beginning to germinate multiple holy ambitions. For some it’s for kids, and I talked with a guy that’s talking about some things overseas, and some people others it’s in business, and others it’s with women. Here’s what I know: If you don’t understand what the last step is, having a courageous soul, you might take some very right steps and get crushed.

This is a serious one. You need to listen very carefully. This is a word for those of you that are stepping out and you might actually find that you’re a little discouraged, or you might even have struggled with a little depression lately, or maybe just kind of disillusioned like you don’t quite get it. "God, I really thought I was on the right track, but boy oh boy, it just seems like things are harder and everything is uphill."

Here’s the thesis. Here’s what you need to understand. We unconsciously believe a myth, and the myth is: If I do what God wants me to do, if I take a step, if I make a sacrifice—it can be with my time, my energy, my money, my future, a relationship—it’s like, "Oh, I know this is a bad relationship. I obey God and I broke up with him," or "I broke up with her," or "I know my priorities are out of whack and I start meeting with God," or "I’m going to give Him the first portion of my income," or "I’m going to get out of my comfort zone, I’m going to love people, I’m going to go on a missions trip."

When we do that kind of thing, unconsciously we think God is going to be so pleased. Well, He is. But we think He’s going to be so pleased that life’s going to be great. Life’s going to be—shouldn’t it be, right? You’re obeying. He should—I mean, you’re just going to get high fives from the Lord and way to go, and He’s going to answer all your prayers and relationship issues are going to get better overnight. That is a myth. The common pitfall is false expectations.

False expectations. Our greatest personal commitments and spiritual victories are almost always followed by periods of intense opposition. Underline the word intense opposition. Moses takes a big step of faith: intense opposition. Elijah has the big confrontation and then later: intense opposition. Jesus sets His face and says okay, He’s baptized, He’s commissioned for ministry, and then what happens? 40 days in the desert with intense opposition.

You can take it to the bank. When you step out and take a step of faith that is the clearly defined will of God, it will usually get more difficult before it gets easier. And if you don’t know that, then I’ve watched this happen. "You know what? I thought this was God’s will, but it must not be because look how hard it is and how difficult it is and all these things that have gone wrong."

When I moved to Atlanta, it was the second hardest ministry decision. We were in Santa Cruz, pastoring a local church. I loved what I was doing, my family loved it. My boys all found Santa Cruz girls, married them. And God made it clear, "You’re supposed to go to Atlanta." So, make this decision. We go.

My car on the way is in an ice storm. I sent it there on one of those big tractor-trailer things, so it gets ruined, but I don’t know it because there’s snow when it comes, and gasoline had poured through it. So I had this car in the winter that I could only drive with the windows down.

My wife had two surgeries on her jaw that didn’t work, so she was in intense pain. I won’t go through it all, but at one point when it got to number 11, we started keeping track. In the first 10 days, we had 23 things happen to the house that broke down. One guy said, "Heh, this never happened in my life. We cut through that line, that line, that line. So you don’t have any water, you don’t have any electricity."

And then, are you ready? I take over the job in 2002. It has a huge international component to it, and it takes millions and millions of dollars. So does anybody remember what happened like in January of 2003? The dot-com bust. So all the major donors didn’t have any money.

All of a sudden, it’s like, okay, now I’m waking up in the middle of the night and my wife is crying and sobbing into a pillow because she’s not real happy, part physical, part emotional. Everything that could go wrong around me has. The move is just an absolute nightmare. My daughter has been taken out of a school in the middle of high school. We don’t have any money, and other than that, things are going well.

Now here’s the difference. You know what my reaction this time was? Wow. I think God is really up to something. I think God must really have something significant beyond my wildest dreams for little old me who doesn’t mean very much to get this level of opposition.

And I would look back seven years later and see a hundred countries, 90,000 teachers, eight videos, and five books written in a season of time that I never dreamed could happen to an ordinary person like me because the opposition told me I was on the right track. Did I like it? No. Part of the opposition that’s meant to pull you down, God uses to develop some character and some trust and some issues in you so that when He blesses you, you’ll understand it’s Him instead of you.

So with that, look at Nehemiah. He’s our model. So he’s got holy ambition. Remember? He had it made in the shade. He’s cupbearer to the king. And we’ve gone through three chapters to learn about his dislocated heart. We’ve learned that then he had this intense prayer time of looking up, looking in, looking out. He took the radical step of faith, he risks his life.

He finds his personal commitment, he says, "I’m supposed to rebuild the wall," and gathers the people, casts the vision. He’s got the gift of leadership. And then he makes this personal commitment, develops out of this strategic plan, and then you would think things are going to go great. This is a great man of God. All of history, literally the entire history of Israel, is completely changed by this man.

Now what happens, I’m going to give you an overview of the next three chapters. In chapter 3, there’s external opposition. It’s very frontal, it’s in his face. The goal is to discourage him. And the means is ridicule or fear, and we’re going to look at this one very carefully.

In chapter 5, the opposition isn’t out there, it’s internal. All of a sudden you find that they’re fighting among themselves. The goal of the enemy is to divide, and the way he does it is by selfishness and greed within the family of God here.

Then in chapter 6, it goes from this corporate opposition to individual. It’s very, very subtle. They attempt to destroy him. There’s literally a contract out on his life. And people he thought he could trust—a priest and a prophetess—come together and tell him, "You really need to do this," and the goal was to get him in a certain place so they could assassinate him. Deception and intimidation.

Open your notes and I want to dig in chapter 4 because I think this issue of discouragement is so critical. And I’ve put it in the metaphor of boxing. My dad was a boxer. He was in World War II, and because of that, when he came back—he went in at 16—he came back and he couldn’t play any sports, and he really liked sports. So he learned to box. In fact, I guess you can brag on your dad when he’s dead, but he’s in heaven right now, but he won the Golden Gloves.

When I was little, he would teach me how to box. And I don’t know that I ever got any good, but I learned the terminology. And the metaphor of opposition here, I want to give you in boxing. We’re going to look at the enemy’s first punch to thwart God’s program in our lives, and it’s the jab of ridicule and criticism.

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore the wall?" You can hear the sarcasm in his voice. "Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring stones back to life from those heaps of rubble, burned as they are?"

Tobiah, another one of the bad guys, the Ammonite who was at his side, said, "What are they building? If even a fox climbed on it, he would break down their wall of stones." And then Nehemiah, you’re going to find in just a minute, is going to respond. And he’s going to respond the way that we need to respond.

But I want you to see here: ridicule and criticism. Notice the aim is at their worth. It’s sarcasm. "Why are you taking the step of faith? God can’t use someone like you." It’s casting doubt. God has shown you, you start to take a step, and all of a sudden you feel like, "Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Maybe I don’t measure up. This probably really won’t work. It probably takes someone a lot smarter than me, or maybe I should do it next year," all that kind of stuff.

Dave Druey: You’re listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we’ll continue our message in just a moment. We’re in the middle of Chip’s series You Were Made for More: How to Discover God’s Purpose for Your Life. If you’d like to catch up on any programs you’ve missed or share a message with someone who needs to hear it, every program is available free at livingontheedge.org. You’ll also find study resources and bonus content from Chip. That’s livingontheedge.org. Now back to Chip.

Chip Ingram: This can paralyze you. I was a high school teacher and I found myself walking into the teachers’ lounge one day and it sort of cleared out just before the bell rang. There were three guys, all fairly young teachers, one middle-aged guy, and they were making all I can call it is extraordinarily lewd comments about a very attractive co-ed that was like a 17-year-old girl in the school.

I walked in and I’m hearing this conversation and thinking, man, this is wrong. So I said, "Excuse me, guys, that’s very unprofessional." They kind of looked at me like, "Young new teacher, who the heck do you think you are?" And then I kind of got on a roll, so I said, "Guys, that is so disrespectful. Let me ask you, how would you like someone talking about your daughter that way? Those sexual innuendos, those kind of comments? There’s no place for that in us as teachers."

The bell rang and I kind of got rescued. It was kind of great, and I thought, well, I stood up for the Lord. And then I’ll never forget, next day I come in the teachers’ lounge and, "Oh, here comes the preacher." And I mean, people then, the conversation would start, "Oh, let’s not talk about that, Chip’s in the room. We all have to be very careful about—"

And I mean, it was just piled on. Ridicule, ridicule, sarcasm, ridicule. So guess what? I had a solution to that: I stopped going to the teachers’ lounge. I got intimidated. I got my feelings hurt. I felt like I didn’t measure up. I started doubting maybe I shouldn’t have said something. But in my mind, I’m thinking, that’s the right thing to do. That was the right—but then how come I feel so bad? And I felt like a chump.

I found myself a prisoner. I would get—the teachers’ lounge is where the good coffee was. And so what do you do? I remember just coming to grips with: Are you going to allow labels and names and ridicule and sarcasm to define you or God?

Jot down a verse, Proverbs 29:25. The fear of man is a snare, but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. At some point in time in your life, you need to figure out who you want to be afraid of. You can fear people and their opinions or fear God, but you can’t fear both. And one will free you and the other will imprison you.

So Nehemiah, how did he respond? He says, "Hear us, oh God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in the land of captivity. Do not cover their guilt or blot out their sins from Your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders."

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. He prayed. Jot that down. He prayed. He gets ridiculed, he’s struggling, he prayed. We’ve been talking about that. He comes before God and he says, "God, this is what they’re doing."

He didn’t talk back to them. He didn’t try to exchange words. "Oh, we’re going to build this." He didn’t defend himself. He prayed. Prayer is one of those avenues of grace. It’s not that big ought to, have to, it’s the actual privilege of keeping company with God in His presence, being transformed by Him, claiming promises about what you’re dealing with and then standing on those promises and watching the Spirit of God take the Word of God and change people’s hearts and circumstances. That’s how God has always worked. And here we see it with Nehemiah.

Well, the enemy’s second punch to thwart God’s program in our lives is the upper cut of discouragement. Follow along as I read verses 7 through 12. But when Sanballat—so the wall’s half built and Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs of Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very, very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.

But we, notice again, prayed to our God and posted a guard at night to meet the threat. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out and there’s so much rubble that we can’t rebuild the wall." Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or before they see it, we will be right there among them and we will kill them and we will put an end to the work." Then the Jews who live near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack you."

You see what’s going on here? It’s built halfway, and now there’s an offense. And now you have a group of people that—did you hear some of those phrases? Now they’re looking at, instead of the wall half-built, what is it? All they see is the rubble. There’s too much to do. It says they lost their strength, they’re tired. They’ve lost perspective.

And now they’re hearing these whispers, the rumors are: "Wherever you are, they’re going to come and they’re going to get you." And Jews, some of their Jewish brothers, are coming and feeding them these lies. Let me give you the four things that flow right out of this passage that will absolutely discourage you.

The first one is loss of strength. The strength of the laborers is giving out. Write down the keyword: fatigue. Sometimes we over-spiritualize things. When you push it, when you work hard, when you’re up early, when you’re up late, when there’s stress, when there’s a lot of demand and you’re going at it and then you minister after that and you get tired, you’re vulnerable. The first thing that happens when you get really tired and really wiped out and you’re vulnerable, you get discouraged.

The second is notice the loss of vision. Notice what they say: "There’s so much rubble." They’re half done, but all they see is what’s left to do. And the keyword is perspective. Think of where they were just probably a week or two earlier. I mean, there was rubble everywhere and they said, "Nehemiah, let us arise and build, our God will do this." They were fired up. The people worked with all their heart. They get half done, they’re fatigued, and you lose perspective.

Doesn’t that happen to you? You’re like, "Man, I was really—we kind of were going to that marriage counseling thing, but we’ve been to three sessions." Now instead of "We’ve made progress," "Man, this is a long-term deal." Or you start setting some boundaries for some of your kids and you know it’s going to be really hard and you say, "Nope, we’re going to do it this way," and they push back, push back, push back, and you start to see some results and you think, "You know what? This is just too much. Forget this."

Or you fly your flag at work and you begin to share your faith a little bit and let people know what’s happening, and there’s this inner sense and you start getting up in the morning and you want to meet with God, and then this happens and that happens and you oversleep a couple times and there’s extra big pressure at work and you’re up half the night, then you’re really tired. And it’s like, "You know what, God, I just—" right?

That happens to us. And you get discouraged. And then these little voices say, "See, God’s not going to use you. I mean, not someone like you. That whole idea of that missions trip, that was stupid. You shouldn’t have gone, you shouldn’t have signed up. See if you can get out of it. By the way, all the money’s not in, right? That ought to tell you something, maybe God doesn’t want you to go." Maybe. Or maybe God really has something great.

But you get discouraged. The next thing is notice there’s a loss of confidence. Look at the phrase there in verse 10: "We cannot rebuild the wall." You’re half done, but "We can’t do it." And the keyword there is faith. Before, they believed by the power of God this is going to happen, and now they’ve lost their confidence.

And then finally, look at verse 12. The enemy will surprise attack you ten different times. They have a loss of security and fear. When you get tired, when you lose perspective, when your faith begins to waver, and then when you have fear, let me tell you something: you get discouraged.

By the way, it’s very interesting. I’m doing this little study and one of the ideas I had was to take all these different attributes of God and see where they came out in the life of Christ. I read Matthew and Mark just to find out times when people were in stressful situations and what did Jesus do? And it’s in here. He says, "Fear not, fret not." But the most common one I saw was "Take courage." You’re drowning: "Take courage." Peter looking at the waves: "Take courage. Take courage."

Courage is, even though there’s fear, even though there’s opposition, courage is the willingness to step out, trusting God, and to do what you know is right even when everything around you or inside you is scaring you to death.

What’d He say to Joshua? "Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble, don’t be dismayed." So when you lose your courage, what is discouragement? "Dis" is just removing the courage for you to hang in there.

Dave Druey: You’re listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled Grow a Courageous Soul. Chip will be back in just a moment with some final thoughts.

Think about what Chip described today. Nehemiah didn’t just face a construction problem; he faced a personal assault. The ridicule was aimed at his worth. "Can God really use someone like you?" And here’s the thing: that voice doesn’t go away when you step out in faith. It often gets louder. But as Chip showed from Nehemiah, the response isn’t to argue back. It’s to pray, to refuse to let the labels of others define you, and to keep building.

To help you figure out exactly how God has designed and called you, we’ve put together a free resource called The Real You, an online assessment available at therealyou.org. Thousands of believers have used it to get clarity on their strengths, passions, and purpose. Visit therealyou.org and gain some powerful spiritual insight today.

And if this program has strengthened your walk with God and helped you to better understand what living like a Christian really looks like today, we invite you to help us continue this gospel work by donating to Living on the Edge. We’re a listener-supported ministry, and your generosity makes it possible to keep reaching people who need to hear these truths. We’ve made it easy to give online at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Now here’s Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: As you listen to today’s program, what went through your mind? Are you like me? Did you listen to the program today and just have that little light go on and say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I forgot. I’m doing life in a fallen world. I’m walking with God, but there’s opposition."

Isn’t it amazing how we forget that? Isn’t it amazing that we somehow fall into that myth that when you obey God, when you take steps of faith, when you’re loving your mate and raising your kids right and put your finances in order, that unconsciously, just unconsciously we think, well, life’s going to turn out great.

And we looked at that first punch, that jab of ridicule. And I want to ask you, where are you getting that? Are you getting it at home? Are you getting it at the office? Are you a student and getting it from people because you carry your Bible or you share your faith?

You know something? God knows the score. God loves you. Remember, the fear of man is a snare, but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Let’s agree together today to live for an audience of one. That jab of ridicule, that making fun of you, that little look that you get because you’re doing life God’s way, let’s draw back and say, you know, the Lord is smiling and He loves you.

And I just want to encourage you today. I want to encourage you to pray and persist. Like Nehemiah, don’t give up, don’t give in, ask God to make a way, and please don’t quit because someone out there is making fun of you in some way. There’s too much at stake. Keep pressing ahead.

Dave Druey: I’m Dave Druey. Next time, Chip Ingram goes deeper into Nehemiah 4, names the four specific causes of discouragement, and gives you a concrete battle plan for fighting back. Don’t miss next time on Living on the Edge. Today’s program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.