WEBVTT - Chip Ingram - Oct 14 - 9:30 am 0:00:11.740 --> 0:00:14.330 Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. 0:00:14.650 --> 0:00:16.690 Do you ever wish you had more faith? 0:00:17.010 --> 0:00:18.790 Have there ever been times where you say to yourself, 0:00:18.950 --> 0:00:21.450 Oh God, I just wish I could believe that you'll 0:00:21.489 --> 0:00:23.710 take care of me. I wish I could believe you're 0:00:23.730 --> 0:00:26.250 in control. I wish I could believe that you have 0:00:26.290 --> 0:00:28.980 my best in mind. But help me in my unbelief. 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.260 If you struggle with faith and want to learn how 0:00:32.300 --> 0:00:33.960 to get more, stay with me. 0:00:36.460 --> 0:00:39.000 God is scanning the earth right now looking for men 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.020 and women whose hearts are completely His. so he can 0:00:42.060 --> 0:00:45.680 work through them in extraordinary ways. Today on Living on 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.760 the Edge, Chip Ingram continues our series, You Were Made 0:00:48.820 --> 0:00:51.580 for More, with the third condition God is looking for, 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.960 a radical step of faith. He takes us to Luke 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.060 chapter 9 and shows us that the problem most believers 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.200 have isn't a shortage of faith, it's an unclear view 0:01:01.300 --> 0:01:04.060 of Christ. And when you see Jesus for who he 0:01:04.150 --> 0:01:07.070 really is, you can take steps of faith you never 0:01:07.130 --> 0:01:09.970 thought possible. Now, here's Chip Ingram. 0:01:10.790 --> 0:01:14.950 Please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 9. We're going 0:01:14.970 --> 0:01:17.760 to look at some verses that as you look at them, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:22.580 Jesus is going to describe and teach specifically how you, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.480 an ordinary person, and me, ordinary person, can actually develop 0:01:26.670 --> 0:01:27.830 a radical faith. 0:01:28.709 --> 0:01:31.590 Are you in Luke 9? Let's go. This is to 0:01:31.709 --> 0:01:32.509 all of his followers. 0:01:32.550 --> 0:01:34.910 Then he said to them, if anyone would come after me, 0:01:36.060 --> 0:01:38.540 He must deny himself and take up his cross daily 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.619 and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life 0:01:41.690 --> 0:01:44.890 will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me 0:01:44.970 --> 0:01:47.370 will save it. What good is it for man to 0:01:47.390 --> 0:01:49.930 gain the whole world and yet forfeit his very self? 0:01:50.590 --> 0:01:52.590 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, a 0:01:52.630 --> 0:01:54.170 son of man will be ashamed of him when he 0:01:54.210 --> 0:01:56.110 comes in his glory and in the glory of the 0:01:56.170 --> 0:01:59.010 Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, 0:01:59.580 --> 0:02:03.000 some who are standing here will not taste death before 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.990 they see the kingdom of God. So do you understand 0:02:06.030 --> 0:02:09.530 what Jesus is calling? This is the baseline for followers. 0:02:10.030 --> 0:02:13.280 If anyone will come after me, the word says he must. 0:02:14.139 --> 0:02:17.260 I must deny myself. That means my life's not about me, 0:02:17.340 --> 0:02:19.820 my agenda, my future, everything I can do. I need 0:02:19.860 --> 0:02:21.890 to take up my cross. It's an instrument of death. 0:02:22.950 --> 0:02:26.630 And I'm going to obey. And so there's the calling 0:02:26.750 --> 0:02:30.380 to radical faith. What he's gonna teach them is you 0:02:30.419 --> 0:02:32.820 don't need a lot of faith. What you need is 0:02:32.860 --> 0:02:35.889 to clarify the objective of your faith. If you could 0:02:36.010 --> 0:02:38.950 ever see Jesus for who he is, how good, how kind, 0:02:39.150 --> 0:02:42.649 how powerful, how trustworthy, how loving, how much he wants 0:02:42.710 --> 0:02:45.269 for you, if you could ever see God for who 0:02:45.290 --> 0:02:48.150 he really is, you don't need hardly any faith. 0:02:48.230 --> 0:02:49.690 It'd be easy to do whatever he says. 0:02:50.830 --> 0:02:52.980 So what we're gonna see is he's gonna take his 0:02:53.100 --> 0:02:56.320 three disciples who will have the primary leadership roles in 0:02:56.340 --> 0:02:58.459 the church after he leaves, And he's going to give 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.330 them a private moment with him to clarify the object 0:03:02.370 --> 0:03:04.450 of their faith, who he really is. And then he's 0:03:04.470 --> 0:03:06.950 going to have a public moment where all the other 0:03:06.990 --> 0:03:11.030 disciples see and those who've had this experience. And then 0:03:11.190 --> 0:03:13.600 I've got an illustration that'll bring it home. Pick it 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.520 up with me in verse 28. Notice it says, about 0:03:16.580 --> 0:03:18.959 eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, 0:03:18.980 --> 0:03:20.900 and James with him and he went up into a 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.640 mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.330 of his face changed and his clothes became as bright 0:03:26.930 --> 0:03:28.090 He didn't know what he was saying. 0:03:28.110 --> 0:03:30.630 I can identify with that. 0:03:56.470 --> 0:03:59.890 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, 0:03:59.970 --> 0:04:02.290 and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And 0:04:02.330 --> 0:04:05.490 a voice came from the cloud saying, this is my 0:04:05.610 --> 0:04:07.570 son whom I've chosen. 0:04:08.150 --> 0:04:13.590 Listen to him. What happened? It's near the end of 0:04:13.630 --> 0:04:15.390 his ministry. Why? 0:04:15.950 --> 0:04:18.670 Jesus knows they're going to have to believe. And it's 0:04:18.710 --> 0:04:21.390 not about how much faith. It's the object of their faith. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.690 Do you understand what God's doing? He's letting these three 0:04:25.730 --> 0:04:29.900 guys see who Jesus is. And when you see who 0:04:29.940 --> 0:04:33.740 he really is, then what we'll watch later is doing 0:04:33.779 --> 0:04:34.420 what he says in. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.400 All that heart. He's God. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.330 Well, after they have this experience, they're going to go 0:04:39.350 --> 0:04:42.180 down the mountain. And as they go down the mountain, 0:04:42.220 --> 0:04:44.490 I want you to notice the author is letting us 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.110 know these are connected. When the voice had spoken, they 0:04:47.170 --> 0:04:50.850 found Jesus alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and 0:04:50.910 --> 0:04:53.130 told no one at the time what they had seen. 0:04:53.330 --> 0:04:56.940 Then notice the time marker again. The next day. The 0:04:56.980 --> 0:04:58.440 next day, all this goes together. 0:04:58.839 --> 0:04:58.919 Why? 0:05:19.730 --> 0:05:22.110 What's Jesus say? What's the text say? Look in your Bible. 0:05:22.670 --> 0:05:28.120 Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall 0:05:28.180 --> 0:05:30.060 I stay with you and put up with you? 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:31.640 Bring your son to me. 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.349 Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.849 to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the 0:05:37.970 --> 0:05:40.609 evil spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to 0:05:40.650 --> 0:05:44.070 his father. And they were all amazed at what? The 0:05:44.150 --> 0:05:47.070 greatness of God. And while everyone was marveling at what 0:05:47.130 --> 0:05:50.180 Jesus did, he said to his disciples, listen carefully to 0:05:50.210 --> 0:05:53.520 what I'm about to tell you. He's setting them up. Look, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:55.980 there's going to be challenges. The son of man is 0:05:56.020 --> 0:05:58.280 going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.440 they didn't understand what this meant. It was hidden from them. 0:06:01.820 --> 0:06:04.330 So they didn't grasp it. And they were afraid to 0:06:04.529 --> 0:06:08.710 ask him about it. He's preparing them for his leaving. 0:06:09.070 --> 0:06:12.190 And he's giving them promises. And how did he. 0:06:12.190 --> 0:06:15.339 Heal the boy? Did he touch you? What did he do? 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:16.719 He spoke. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.940 You can trust my word. There's power in my word. 0:06:22.100 --> 0:06:25.370 Some of the other gospel writers give this account and 0:06:25.430 --> 0:06:28.150 say this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. 0:06:28.470 --> 0:06:30.789 It's not that there's some little magical thing that happens 0:06:30.810 --> 0:06:35.170 when you fast. When people fast, they say that spiritual 0:06:35.270 --> 0:06:38.970 food and attention with God is more important than my 0:06:39.230 --> 0:06:42.729 physical food. And as they fast, as they meet and 0:06:42.750 --> 0:06:46.150 spend extended time with God, it gets clarified who God 0:06:46.190 --> 0:06:48.960 really is. And that's how you trust him. You don't 0:06:48.980 --> 0:06:51.460 need a lot of faith. You need a crystal clear 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:53.599 object of your faith. Let me give you an example. Okay, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.419 let's pretend this is a bridge, okay? And from here 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.300 over to there is a span. Let's make it 100 0:06:59.300 --> 0:07:01.260 feet since it doesn't look that scary from here. 0:07:02.170 --> 0:07:04.430 And then you gotta pretend. Will you guys pretend with 0:07:04.470 --> 0:07:04.890 me on this one? 0:07:05.450 --> 0:07:08.550 Looking down, it's 1,000 feet, and there's alligators in there 0:07:09.010 --> 0:07:11.620 and piranha. You'd probably die from the fall, but if 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.480 you don't, they're gonna get you, all right? Here's how 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.740 we tend to think about faith. We think about faith as, okay, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.050 there's a bridge that crosses it, and it's God's known 0:07:20.110 --> 0:07:22.190 will for you to cross the bridge. And we think 0:07:22.210 --> 0:07:24.710 there's only a few people like a spiritual Indiana Jones 0:07:24.730 --> 0:07:27.670 who can do it. And we visualize this as sort 0:07:27.690 --> 0:07:30.070 of one of those rickety, you know, bridges like we've 0:07:30.090 --> 0:07:32.790 seen in the Indiana Jones. And it's made with vines. And, 0:07:33.070 --> 0:07:35.410 you know, about every third board is broken or looks old. 0:07:35.710 --> 0:07:38.210 But there's some. There's a few. There's the proud. There's 0:07:38.270 --> 0:07:40.530 people who have more faith than us. And they go, bum, ba-bum. 0:07:41.070 --> 0:07:43.110 And now they almost fall. And then they make it through. 0:07:43.390 --> 0:07:44.510 And they give. And it's through. 0:07:46.830 --> 0:07:48.890 They're the awesome Christians. And we think, I could never 0:07:48.940 --> 0:07:51.810 be like that. And that's how we think about it. 0:07:52.590 --> 0:07:55.880 I mean, it's Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon and, you know, 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:00.040 you name your spiritual hero. Nothing could be farther from 0:08:00.060 --> 0:08:03.980 what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is you're 0:08:04.020 --> 0:08:08.170 right here. There's a thousand feet drop. There's alligators and 0:08:08.210 --> 0:08:10.430 there's real danger and there's real cost and there's piranha 0:08:11.050 --> 0:08:15.330 and there's a bridge. You look at the bridge. You 0:08:15.350 --> 0:08:19.280 say to yourself, wow, those are three feet still girders. 0:08:20.790 --> 0:08:25.610 Not only that, but this thing spans and it's got 0:08:25.670 --> 0:08:29.030 concrete four feet wide. It's 12 feet wide. Has railings 0:08:29.070 --> 0:08:31.940 on both sides. Now, is it a thousand foot drop? Yeah. 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:32.960 Are there real alligators? 0:08:32.980 --> 0:08:36.220 Yeah. Would this bridge hold me? My lands, this bridge 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.040 would hold a truck. It's not a big deal to 0:08:38.059 --> 0:08:42.920 walk across this thing. God is going to ask some 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.000 of you on this day to take a radical step 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.830 of faith. Some of you in relationships that you know 0:08:49.890 --> 0:08:52.599 are ungodly but because of your security, you're afraid to 0:08:52.630 --> 0:08:55.920 break them off. Some of you have addictions that are 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.900 holding you up and people don't know about it or 0:08:57.940 --> 0:09:00.479 the people that you love do and you're unwilling to 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.600 come clean. Some of you have been holding on to 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.360 your future. A great many of you statistically are holding 0:09:07.420 --> 0:09:10.819 on to your money. Some of you have had a 0:09:10.860 --> 0:09:12.860 dream in your heart about what God could really do 0:09:12.900 --> 0:09:16.080 through you, but I mean, the implications, the moment you 0:09:16.100 --> 0:09:19.990 get to that, you think, oh, that might mean, and 0:09:20.020 --> 0:09:24.750 you withdraw Now, I'm not telling you there aren't real alligators. 0:09:25.890 --> 0:09:27.890 I'm not telling you it might not be very fearful. 0:09:29.230 --> 0:09:32.480 And I'll probably guarantee it'll get more difficult before it 0:09:32.500 --> 0:09:38.140 gets better. But you can keep living the try hard, 0:09:38.220 --> 0:09:42.700 come to church, be religious, ask God to make your 0:09:42.740 --> 0:09:46.930 life work out, frustration life that is the average Christian 0:09:47.070 --> 0:09:53.430 experience all across America. Or you can join an army 0:09:53.620 --> 0:09:58.729 of real Christ followers who have dislocated hearts, broken spirits, 0:09:59.270 --> 0:09:59.970 take radical steps. 0:10:00.210 --> 0:10:00.569 Of faith. 0:10:01.309 --> 0:10:09.360 And when God sees faith, supernatural power occurs. And what 0:10:09.390 --> 0:10:13.339 we have in the church today is primarily what people 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.819 who believe personally in Jesus, the great majority that I 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.250 assume whose sins are actually forgiven, and his spirit actually 0:10:20.290 --> 0:10:22.090 lives in them, what we see is what they can 0:10:22.110 --> 0:10:26.030 do with their energy, their time, playing it safe, as 0:10:26.110 --> 0:10:29.510 long as God doesn't ask anything too big or too scary. 0:10:31.970 --> 0:10:36.270 And my experience is that Microsoft and HP and eBay 0:10:36.750 --> 0:10:40.530 take greater steps of faith to build something for profit 0:10:40.950 --> 0:10:44.349 than the average church that has a bridge over troubled 0:10:44.390 --> 0:10:48.870 water named Jesus who raised from the dead and dwells 0:10:48.990 --> 0:10:53.930 in you. And God called us together to become not 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:55.839 a group of people that we measure by how many 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.080 people show up, but by what kind of people leave 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.480 with what kind of faith that are impacting our homes 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.079 and our lives. And it's a journey and it's difficult, 0:11:04.540 --> 0:11:07.330 but it's in all that pain and struggle and difficulty 0:11:07.890 --> 0:11:12.150 that you experience God. Not hear about him, not try hard, 0:11:12.330 --> 0:11:14.250 experience things that you can't explain. Amen. 0:11:16.170 --> 0:11:18.809 You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, 0:11:19.210 --> 0:11:21.870 and we'll have more in just a moment. Remember, the 0:11:21.910 --> 0:11:24.610 place to go for all of these daily messages is 0:11:24.730 --> 0:11:29.790 over on our website, livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full 0:11:29.830 --> 0:11:33.309 teaching library, along with even more content like Chip's free 0:11:33.530 --> 0:11:36.969 daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. 0:11:37.630 --> 0:11:40.610 You can also download the Chip Ingram app absolutely free 0:11:40.910 --> 0:11:44.579 through any app store on your smart device. Now let's 0:11:44.620 --> 0:11:47.050 continue with today's message from Chip Ingram. 0:11:47.470 --> 0:11:51.370 Now, as the text goes on, you'll notice that these disciples, 0:11:51.410 --> 0:11:53.910 you know, Peter, John, James, that's near the end of 0:11:53.950 --> 0:11:57.700 the ministry. They've left homes. They're being ridiculed. Jesus is 0:11:57.740 --> 0:12:00.839 a marked man. There's assassination plots. This is not a 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.560 safe person to hang around and follow. And so, I mean, 0:12:04.580 --> 0:12:10.290 they're in. So three things occur. One is an argument 0:12:10.410 --> 0:12:14.949 among them about who's the greatest. Second is they find 0:12:15.050 --> 0:12:17.950 out some other group that's using Jesus' name and doing ministry, 0:12:18.250 --> 0:12:20.520 and basically they say, Master, you know, have you heard 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.020 about this? These other people are, you know, they're not 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.520 even on our super-duper little team. Now, you don't want 0:12:25.540 --> 0:12:27.300 them around. And then the third thing that happens is 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.219 they're on their way to Jerusalem, and they need to 0:12:29.260 --> 0:12:33.860 go through Samaria. And the Samaritans and Jews had real conflict. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.609 And so John and James, who really now believe, they've 0:12:37.630 --> 0:12:39.709 experienced great power, they say, Lord, do you want us 0:12:39.750 --> 0:12:41.430 to call fire down from the sky and take care 0:12:41.450 --> 0:12:41.890 of this village? 0:12:42.550 --> 0:12:45.120 You know? boom, boom. 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.740 You know, I mean, they're experiencing real supernatural power. And 0:12:48.780 --> 0:12:50.839 the dangers when you get very, very committed to the 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.960 Lord Jesus are three. One is comparison, and it's the 0:12:54.020 --> 0:12:58.130 misuse of position. At the heart of all walking with 0:12:58.170 --> 0:13:00.290 God is humility. You don't need to compare yourself with 0:13:00.350 --> 0:13:01.830 anyone and what they're doing and what God made them 0:13:01.870 --> 0:13:03.410 to do, what he's called them to do, or how 0:13:03.450 --> 0:13:08.360 he's using them. The second danger is exclusivity. That's the 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.060 misuse of privilege. You know, they're not in our group. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.240 They're not in our denomination. They're not our campus ministry. 0:13:13.260 --> 0:13:14.940 They don't look at everything just the way, you know, 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:16.920 we're the ones that God's gonna use. You would be 0:13:16.970 --> 0:13:20.089 surprised who God uses that don't fit some of your categories, 0:13:21.650 --> 0:13:23.350 who really love God and the truth of his word. 0:13:23.910 --> 0:13:25.970 And the third is zeal is the misuse of power. 0:13:27.070 --> 0:13:28.290 And so I just say that to some of you 0:13:28.309 --> 0:13:30.970 that you're sitting here today and you're thinking, I was 0:13:31.010 --> 0:13:32.870 just wondering when someone was gonna say this. 0:13:32.770 --> 0:13:33.870 In this church. Man, you know what? 0:13:34.130 --> 0:13:36.290 If people gave like I gave, if they served like 0:13:36.410 --> 0:13:38.360 I served, if they shared like I shared, why. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.660 Don't these other people get on board? I mean, it's 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.740 a private thought. It's a judgmental thought. And it produces. 0:13:46.780 --> 0:13:49.360 An experience that when we meet you, if it bubbles 0:13:49.420 --> 0:13:54.100 up to the surface, that's not all that attractive. And 0:13:54.140 --> 0:13:56.700 it's that kind of conversation where you criticize other churches 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:01.060 or other ministries. And it's that kind where God does 0:14:01.100 --> 0:14:03.440 some things and if you're not careful, you can get 0:14:03.500 --> 0:14:07.040 carried away with the experience instead of with the Lord. 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.089 And then I want to Just let you read. 0:14:11.570 --> 0:14:14.219 Follow along because he says there is a cost and 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:15.960 we need to look at this before we close. 0:14:17.540 --> 0:14:20.840 And the cost, he says, is threefold. 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.830 As they, verse 57, as they were walking along a road, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.550 a man said to him, I'll follow you. Remember Jesus said, 0:14:27.650 --> 0:14:30.070 we start out with follow me, deny yourself, pick up 0:14:30.090 --> 0:14:30.450 your cross. 0:14:30.470 --> 0:14:33.070 This guy raises his hand. I'll follow you wherever you go. 0:14:33.090 --> 0:14:36.240 And Jesus replied, the foxes have holes and the birds 0:14:36.270 --> 0:14:38.630 of the air have nests. but the son of man 0:14:38.690 --> 0:14:42.290 has no place to lay his head. Translation, you can't 0:14:42.330 --> 0:14:44.650 hang on to stuff. You want to follow me? We 0:14:44.670 --> 0:14:51.070 travel light. You can't hang on to stuff. Materialism, locations. 0:14:55.010 --> 0:14:58.110 I am your security. There is no other security but me. 0:14:58.750 --> 0:15:00.810 Anything I give you along the way, hold it loosely, 0:15:01.050 --> 0:15:05.290 enjoy it deeply, share it lovingly. Next man comes up 0:15:05.410 --> 0:15:09.310 and says, Jesus said to him, follow me. But the 0:15:09.350 --> 0:15:11.410 man replied, Lord, first let me go bury my father. 0:15:12.070 --> 0:15:14.070 Jesus said, let the dead bury their own dead, but 0:15:14.110 --> 0:15:17.820 you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. It's an 0:15:18.050 --> 0:15:20.960 interesting cultural issue I can't develop. It wasn't that he 0:15:20.980 --> 0:15:23.480 was being harsh with this man. But what he was 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.120 really saying is you can't hang on to people. There 0:15:26.140 --> 0:15:29.040 can't be any higher relationship than your relationship with Jesus. 0:15:29.460 --> 0:15:31.140 It can't be your wife, can't be your husband, can't 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.760 be your kids, can't be your grandparents. God is gracious. 0:15:33.780 --> 0:15:36.960 He'll provide for those things. But we can't say to God, 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.440 I'll do whatever you want inside this box. Hadn't experienced 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.119 a situation with someone that had great gift and great opportunity. 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.410 And his wife said to me, well, I can't live 0:15:50.890 --> 0:15:55.610 more than 30 minutes from my kids. Well, that's a 0:15:55.710 --> 0:16:00.750 real little box. I just wonder if being in the 0:16:00.790 --> 0:16:04.330 center of God's will with him radically transforming your life 0:16:04.410 --> 0:16:07.540 might have a, better impact and a deeper relationship on 0:16:07.580 --> 0:16:10.700 your kids than telling God what he can and can't 0:16:10.740 --> 0:16:13.140 do and how far or how close you gotta be 0:16:13.180 --> 0:16:16.780 to him. The third test as we pick it up 0:16:16.900 --> 0:16:21.850 is Jesus, still another, said, I'll follow you, Lord, but 0:16:21.930 --> 0:16:24.870 first let me go back and say goodbye to my family. 0:16:24.890 --> 0:16:26.510 And Jesus said, no man who puts his hand to 0:16:26.530 --> 0:16:29.130 the plow and looks back is fit for service in 0:16:29.150 --> 0:16:32.410 the kingdom of God. And the cost here is you 0:16:32.430 --> 0:16:37.470 can't hang on to the past. I remember vividly when 0:16:37.510 --> 0:16:40.890 we stepped out and said, okay, God, we're going to 0:16:41.330 --> 0:16:44.170 take living on the edge to do teaching and discipleship. 0:16:44.230 --> 0:16:47.750 Not the organizational side of life, not all the various 0:16:47.790 --> 0:16:49.960 other things, but that's going to be the focus. And 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.580 it was like, whoa, but wait a second. And what 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.220 we knew is in the first 30 days, if God 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.540 didn't radically show up, we'd have $ 150, 000 debt because of 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.360 some circumstances a bit beyond our control. 0:17:01.020 --> 0:17:02.540 And we were committed not to go into debt. 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:04.879 So what we knew was in 30 days, living on 0:17:04.900 --> 0:17:05.590 the edge would be over. 0:17:08.060 --> 0:17:10.390 Well, doesn't God have the right? I mean, he starts things, 0:17:10.470 --> 0:17:13.680 can't he stop things? Now, guess what? 0:17:14.820 --> 0:17:18.500 Didn't have any backers, no plan B, no deep pockets, 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.280 radical step of faith. And we focused on what God 0:17:23.380 --> 0:17:27.119 called us and made us to do. And a fellow 0:17:27.180 --> 0:17:29.139 said to another fellow who said to another fellow to 0:17:29.180 --> 0:17:31.179 other people I didn't meet, and they came up with 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.359 about $ 500, 000 to take to the listening audience who matched 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.770 it by over $ 600, 000. And God was our venture capitalist 0:17:37.790 --> 0:17:41.390 that relaunched the ministry. God can do whatever he wants. 0:17:42.369 --> 0:17:44.469 He can start it, he can stop it. But it's 0:17:44.609 --> 0:17:46.889 one thing to say a ministry is his. It's one 0:17:46.910 --> 0:17:49.050 thing to say your family is his. It's one thing 0:17:49.070 --> 0:17:51.030 to say, oh God, my money is yours. Well, when 0:17:51.050 --> 0:17:53.889 he taps you on the shoulder and says, I'd like 0:17:53.910 --> 0:17:54.670 to have it right now. 0:17:54.550 --> 0:17:54.910 For a while. 0:17:57.210 --> 0:17:59.380 I'll never forget Teresa said, you know, whatever God ever 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.820 chooses to do, we will know it had nothing to 0:18:02.859 --> 0:18:03.280 do with us. 0:18:04.060 --> 0:18:04.270 It's his. 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:04.470 It's his. 0:18:06.170 --> 0:18:09.670 It's a radical step of faith. Now, was I afraid? Absolutely. 0:18:10.380 --> 0:18:11.150 Slash terrified. 0:18:11.260 --> 0:18:12.500 And I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to need a 0:18:12.500 --> 0:18:15.840 job here. Not only did we not have any money 0:18:15.859 --> 0:18:17.639 for the ministry to go on, is when I stepped out, 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:19.659 you know, I used to have this job being the 0:18:19.700 --> 0:18:21.600 president of this thing. It, you know, paid pretty good 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.760 and had a global platform. And it wasn't like it 0:18:24.780 --> 0:18:28.600 was a lousy thing to do. It was really privileged. 0:18:29.820 --> 0:18:32.300 But it's obeying. See, at the end of the day, that's, 0:18:33.109 --> 0:18:35.770 faith is a coin. And when you flip the coin 0:18:35.850 --> 0:18:39.899 over It says, obey. And it's just trusting him to 0:18:39.940 --> 0:18:43.060 the point where you just do what he says. And 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.639 there's a supernatural life awaiting you. The final point is 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.119 that you can't walk on water unless you get out 0:18:49.140 --> 0:18:50.780 of the boat. And as you continue to read in 0:18:50.820 --> 0:18:54.659 chapter 10, what you'll find is Jesus, after this message, 0:18:54.900 --> 0:18:56.720 the crowd is bigger than the 12 and he sends 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.889 72 people two by two out to do what he 0:18:59.970 --> 0:19:02.090 asked them to do. And he gives them power to 0:19:02.130 --> 0:19:04.410 do it. And then he says, don't take an extra bag. 0:19:04.450 --> 0:19:06.470 Don't take an extra purse. In fact, he says, I 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:07.470 want you to go with nothing. 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.139 Why? What's he teaching them? I want you to trust me. 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:11.800 I want you to trust me. 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.000 You go to a town and if they're responsive, God 0:19:15.020 --> 0:19:16.900 will have someone there and you stay with that one group. 0:19:16.940 --> 0:19:20.320 Don't do any, you know, jazzing around and having people comparing, 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:23.180 you know, I'll take care of you. Don't even take 0:19:23.220 --> 0:19:26.330 a purse. Don't even take any money. And then in 0:19:26.350 --> 0:19:29.830 verse 17 of chapter 10, you might even scan down there. 0:19:30.290 --> 0:19:33.730 God does things beyond their wildest dreams. And the last 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:38.820 verse is this picture of what happens. The 72 returned 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.919 with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:41.700 us in your name. 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:43.270 And listen to this. 0:19:43.330 --> 0:19:45.710 This is my picture of what I would love Jesus 0:19:45.750 --> 0:19:47.590 to look down on us in the Bay Area. 0:19:48.270 --> 0:19:50.780 I saw Satan fall like water. from heaven. 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.820 Wouldn't it be great to see the intricacies and the 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.379 evil of the Bay Area and Jesus look down on 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.790 our little time together with other churches and Christians here 0:20:00.350 --> 0:20:04.130 and say, I see Satan falling like lightning from heaven. 0:20:04.609 --> 0:20:07.290 I've given you authority to trample snakes and scorpions and 0:20:07.310 --> 0:20:08.830 to overcome the power of the enemy. 0:20:09.190 --> 0:20:10.090 Nothing will harm you. 0:20:10.150 --> 0:20:13.129 However, do not rejoice that the Spirit submit to you, 0:20:13.170 --> 0:20:15.160 but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. 0:20:15.700 --> 0:20:17.159 And then I love this. To me, this is where 0:20:17.180 --> 0:20:17.740 it's all at. 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.080 At that time, Jesus, full of joy, through the Holy 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.540 Spirit said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 0:20:25.619 --> 0:20:28.439 because you have hidden these things from the wise and 0:20:28.460 --> 0:20:31.700 the learned and have revealed them to little children. 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:32.330 Yes, Father. 0:20:32.890 --> 0:20:38.609 For this was your good pleasure. Jesus is really happy. 0:20:40.330 --> 0:20:43.449 And he did it through very ordinary people like us. 0:20:45.460 --> 0:20:47.020 What's it look like for you to take a radical 0:20:47.060 --> 0:20:50.979 step of faith? Is it becoming the man of your 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.159 house spiritually? Is it giving God the first 20 or 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.209 30 minutes and saying, you know, I'm gonna, we went 0:20:57.230 --> 0:20:58.910 through that Romans 12 thing, I did it for a while, 0:20:58.930 --> 0:21:01.970 but I'm gonna meet with you. Is it launching a ministry? 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:04.740 Is it going public and saying, you know, I've never 0:21:04.780 --> 0:21:07.440 been baptized. You know, I'm sort of a secret agent Christian. 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:09.619 Or maybe it's I'm going to give the first portion 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:10.840 of my money I need to get in the game 0:21:10.859 --> 0:21:14.420 and trust God with my finances. Maybe it's I'm going 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.050 to break up a relationship or an addiction. 0:21:17.410 --> 0:21:18.149