Living on the Edge

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
If you're a Christian, you're between the rock and the
hard place when it comes to defending your faith. Here's
the question, how do you help your kids, your friends,
and the people you care about know what is really
true and do it in a way that's not offensive
but absolutely non compromising. That's today. Stay with me.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thanks for listening to this edition of Living on the
Edge with Chippingram. We are an international teaching and discipleship
ministry that encourages and equips Christians to live like Christians well.
In just a minute, Chip will continue our series dealing
with Doubts. But before we get going, let me encourage
you to download his message notes. There are a great
resource to use while you're listen. Check them out at

(00:54):
Living onbeiedge dot org Tap listeners, tap fill in notes.
Chip pointed out how society has moved further and further
from biblical morality. So today he'll provide Christians with a
game plan to respond to these difficult times with grace
and truth. If you're ready, here's Chip with part two
of his talk rethinking apologetics in the twenty first century.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yesterday, the moral climate and the values of major institutions
like education, medicine, the media. They reinforced our values. And
so today the moral climate of these institutions ridicule our
faith and make it more and more difficult for our
kids because it's politically incorrect. But now you get punished.

(01:43):
And yet that's exactly what it was like in the
first century. And so here's what I want to tell you,
And this is my last observation. Before those institutions would
reinforce our beliefs, and now we're living in a world
world that is far more like the first century than

(02:04):
the last century. And Christianity did something in the first century,
and the answers to how to respond when Christianity and
your faith is ridiculed is already available. Now I'm going
to ask you to do something right now. I'd like
you to open your Bibles to one Peter, and I

(02:24):
want to tell you that First Peter was written to
a group of people who if you think you're getting persecuted,
I mean they were blamed at this point in time
for burning down Rome. Rodney Stark, in his excellent book
The Rise of Christianity and the Triumph of Christianity, talks

(02:44):
about sociologically, not the Holy Spirit, not God's power, But
just sociologically, What in the world could happen that an
itinerant preacher with twelve followers, who when he died only
had about one hundred and twenty faithful follow fowers. How
in the world could that itinerant preacher. There's no printing press,

(03:06):
and yet in less than three hundred years, by three
thirteen AD, that little group of followers called the way
later to become Christians. We're more than fifty percent of
the known population of the Roman Empire. I think the
answer is right here. Listen to what God would say
through Peter to a group of people persecuted. First of all,

(03:30):
he opens it and says to those who reside as
aliens scattered throughout ponscious Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia Minor, Bathnia. In
other words, this is for everyone in Asia and Asia Minor.
And then he says to them, my grace and peace
be with you. Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, we
are born again. Get this to a living hope, protected

(03:54):
by God's power. We have an inheritance that's imperishable, that
will not fade away, reserved for us in heaven. And
he goes on to say, in this you greatly rejoice,
even if now for a little while you're distressed by
various trials. Here's what I want you to get. The
early Church had a living hope. It was powerful. They

(04:15):
really believed there was an eternal life and that they
lived in this temporal time, and so that shaped everything.
They believed. They had an inheritance. Now, especially in the world,
it was a very crude and difficult and world of
much suffering, and so these people had hope that they
clung onto in the midst of great difficulty and great persecution.

(04:35):
He goes on to say, fix your hope fully on
this grace and this hope, this following of a living God,
not a religion, not a set of principles. It was
set on Him and the living hope. He says, Therefore,
gird your minds for action. So it starts, and we
don't use that word a lot, but a Roman soldier
would have a long robe, and when he was ready

(04:55):
to go into battle, he would take his belt like this,
and he would take it and he would tuck it
in and he would gird it. He would say, be sober.
Here's what I want you to do. You need to
get ready. You need to think in a different way.
You need to be sober in your thinking. You need
to get ready to go after it. He says, you're
in a battle. And then he goes on to say,
after this hope and you are ready to think in

(05:16):
a completely different way, focused on God's grace. Then here's
what he says, as obedient children, do not be conformed
any longer to the former lust that were yours and
your ignorance. But like the Holy One who called you,
be holy also in all your behavior. So what he's
saying is, first and foremost, you can't look at this

(05:39):
life as your home. You're an alien, You're a stranger. Second,
when you have this hope, when you have an eternal
perspective that happens deep in your heart your behavior, you
become a holy person, not wholly as in weird, holly
as in loving and pure and moral. And then he
look at verse twenty two, he skips on down sents
you in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for

(06:01):
a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another,
because you've been born again by the word of God.
So notice this apologetic. It's first, this place my world
is not about just the now and just the happiness
and how my life turns out and how my kids
get into which school or am I upwardly mobile. It's
first and foremost. I have a faith that's rooted in eternity,

(06:24):
that leads to a holy life, that leads to this
fervent love. This isn't about just being in a small group.
This is your kids growing up in a world and
your friends saying that you love one another. You give
your time, you give your energy, you give your money,
You care about people, You care about the marginalized. The
early church were the ones that would take the infants

(06:46):
off the garbage dumps. The early church was the one
that helped the leoper. The early Church grew according to
Rodney's Dark because in the first eighty to one hundred
and thirty years, there were three major plagues that went
across the whole world Roman world, and everyone ran to
the hills, especially the wealthy, and Christians stayed wilfully in

(07:06):
the cities and served, and many of them died and
their names were recorded as martyrs. They were martyrs who
died to save the people ministering to them through these
plagues it Rodney Starks observes that then there were huge,
major metropolitan cities that the only people that were left
were Christians who survived or unbelievers who were nursed back

(07:29):
to health through Christians. See, it wasn't their reasons, it
was their life, it was their love, it was their dedication.
And I will tell you that where I live, the nuns,
if you will, non religious affiliation in the Silicon Valley,
seventy percent. They're people from all over the world. It's
the most diverse place. It's the most intelligent place. And

(07:50):
what I can tell you what we've had the privilege
of doing when we have loved people, when we've helped
the immigrants, when we've helped do things in the schools,
and we've served the city, when we've helped those in
the homosexual lifestyle and driven them to their doctor's appointment
and cared for them rather than judge them. Do we
hold to the truth absolutely, But a radical love is

(08:13):
what marked the early Church, Holy lives, radical love, eternal perspective.
As you open to chapter two, he says, therefore, get
rid of all malice and God and hypocrisy and envy
and slander, and like a newborn baby, long for the
pure milk of God's word, that by it you may grow.

(08:33):
Did you hear the attitudes? They weren't telling Rome what
they ought to do. They weren't saying, we've got to
have our rights. Get rid of all hypocrisy, get rid
of this anger. Stop posting things about this group or
that group. Stop blaming. Cause your lips to be lips
of praise and encouragement. You hold to the truth, you

(08:54):
live the life, and then he says, you become these
living stones, and you A movement occurred in the early
Church where they became the source of solving some of
the biggest problems in the first century, and they cared
for people that hated them. They returned good for evil.
As they were marched into stadiums arm and arm, they've

(09:16):
been singing praises, praying out loud, God, please forgive those
who are killing us. It's a faith that I see
when I go to China. It's a faith that I'm
seeing when I travel on the Middle East. And it's
the resurgent, the apologetic of the faith that we need
in America today. Your kids are not going to be
followers of Christ because you send them to a Christian school,

(09:38):
and you go to a building and everyone sits and
listens to someone talk, and they hear a few songs.
And whether it's a small little church or a mega church,
I will tell you your kids are bombarded, your friends
are bombarded with a worldview that's completely anathetical to scripture.
And what it's going to take is an apologetic. Are
you ready for this? Here's the number one apologetic your life.

(10:01):
It's a holy life with an eternal perspective that's radically loving.
And then in chapter two he goes on to say
that this builds and you're this chosen generation. You're a
God's vehicle. It's not a political party that's going to
change the world. You're a group of priests. You're His
kingdom operational agents to make a difference.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
You're listening to Living on the Edge. And Chip will
be back to continue our series dealing with Doubts in
just a minute. But let me quickly tell you we
are more than a broadcast ministry. We're passionate about supporting
pastors globally, developing helpful resources and sharing the gospel with
this next generation. So if you'd like to partner with
us in these areas. Go to Living on the Edge

(10:47):
dot org. Well, here again his chip.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
And then he says, are you ready for this? I
urge you, as aliens and strangers just like you don't
belong here, to abstain from fleshly luss our morality. We
can't speak words and tell people how they ought to live.
Our morality, especially in the area of sexual purity. It
begins with us not judging other people. He goes on

(11:13):
to say, then this gets wild. Submit therefore to the government,
even when they're wrong. He said, I want you to
submit to the government every institution. You ought to be
the best citizens in the world, not the whiners, not
the complainers, not the blamers, not the people that you say,
you know the government did this, that you know this
political party did this. So I'm going to blame the

(11:33):
media here. And it's higher education here. The early church
understood it was the positive message of their life, and
they hold to the truth. But they were the best citizens,
the kindest people. They were the most winsome. In fact,
he would even go on to say, what credit is
there if you suffer for doing what's wrong? But when

(11:55):
you suffer for doing what is right, not claiming your rights.
This finds favor with God, for you were called to
this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, providing you
an example to follow in his steps. Do you understand
what it looks like when everyone knows when things are unfair,

(12:15):
when you respond in a good way, when a boss
or a meeting, or a neighbor or a situation when
it is so unfair and it is so wrong, and
they meet someone who models Christ's likeness, don't you understand
that's powerful? I mean, that's what Jesus did. And so

(12:35):
he says to us, here's the core of your apologetic
before you give them reasons, before they want to sit
down and ever ask about the hope that's in you,
you know what they need. They need to see the
kind of life that's saying what makes you tick. I
was with a Google executive recently and we're on a
plane riding together, and he's from a Hindu background. But

(12:56):
like most Hindus, like most Buddhists, like most people in Islam,
and like most Christians, they don't practice their faith. Okay,
they're culturally that like most Jews, and so what we
really practice is upward mobility, getting ahead, getting a good education.
But I will tell you this about every person. He
really cared about his wife. He wanted to be a

(13:18):
good dad. We had a conversation for an hour and
a half on a plane, and you know what, I
didn't start with, here's the five reasons why I believe
the Bible. I want you to know Jesus is the
only way, and here's all the reasons for it. He
didn't want to hear any of that. He actually said
to me, you know this sounds kind of crazy, because
I mean, he was super well educated, he was super bright.

(13:39):
He goes, I don't really get like Christianity Islam. I
don't even know the basic story. Could you tell it
to me? And I did, and pretty soon I started
talking about forty years of marriage and I started talking about,
you know, some struggles, big struggles that I had with
some of my kids, and how God worked and what

(13:59):
the principles were in what I believed and why I'm
telling you. An hour and fifty one minutes into that flight,
over that time, this guy I end up handing him
the book Why I Believe, And instead of him feeling
like I'm right and you're wrong. You know what he
felt like. He felt like someone put his arm around him.
And we were sitting on this side of the table,

(14:21):
and truth is on that side of the table. And
there's a loving God that has truth, that wants to
help him be a good dad, that wants him to
have a great marriage, that wants to help him invest
in his kids, and that there is truth that's sustainable
and verifiable. But he wasn't ready to hear any of
that until I listened, until I loved him, till I

(14:44):
didn't judge you, and he gave me all. You know,
I think, as long as you're sincere, it doesn't matter
what you believe. I said, you know, that's a really
interesting statement. And we walked down that path logically, and
I'm going to tell you, little by little by little,
what he realized is he's heard all this mantra of
our day, but he hadn't really thought it through. He
didn't know what he really believed or why. And he

(15:07):
the same human needs that everyone has. That's where we begin.
I love it. He even tells us to let our
family life demonstrate it. He says wives in chapter three,
this is how to respond to your husband, And then Hey, husbands,
this is how you respond to your wife. And this
is so radical. I mean a woman who was just
a piece of property to be used and abused. And

(15:30):
he says, live with your wife in an understanding way.
She's a co er the grace of God. And then
he says, to sum it up, this is a great
passage because it's the actual context. He says, here's what
I want you to know. To sum up, let all
be harmonious and sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, and humble in spirit,
not returning evil for evil or insult for insult. Can

(15:53):
you imagine if we just applied that to social media alone,
not evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving
a blessing instead. For you were called for this very purpose,
why that you might receive a blessing? And then that
passage talks about that blessing and the kind of life
it produces. And it's that kind of life that people

(16:14):
will say, Oh, would you tell me the hope that's
in you? Can you tell me how your family looks
like this? Can you tell me how your life is
working like that? Because here's what I know. People can
say whatever they want. You don't have to believe in gravity.
You jump off a four story building. I'll tell you
what the results are about the same of someone who

(16:35):
says I believe in gravity, this person says I don't
believe in gravity. They both jump off. You don't have
to believe in what God says about relationships. You don't
have to believe that Jesus is the only way. You
don't have to believe that. I will tell you when
you violate the principles of the Kingdom of how God
has designed life to work, then what you have is

(16:55):
destruction and heartbreak. We have the highest suicide rate in
the history of America, especially among thirteen to seventeen year
old girls and middle aged people. Those who are struggling
with sexual identity issues, whether transgender or was homosexuality, you
have again high suicide rates. We're living in a day

(17:18):
where what Christians need to be and to become are
first and foremost godly, loving, kind, and winsome. Because here's
the deal. Classic apologetics assumed that we were living the
kind of life that people were asking about, the hope
that's in you. Now you anybody asking you that what's

(17:43):
your hope? Is your life that different? Can I be
very gentle, but I want to start our time be
very direct. Have you unconsciously unconsciously so, how don't mean
you've willfully done it? Somehow thought that just going to
church intellectually, believing a few facts, praying a prayer is

(18:07):
really going to cause your family, your kids, your neighbors
to see Christ as the most attractive and powerful reality
in all the world. And if you're concerned about your children,
if you're concerned and feeling intimidated by what's happening in
our world, stay with me, because we're going to talk

(18:28):
about this new apologetic that starts with your life. And
how then we use all those facts and all that
truth in a winsome way to put our arm around
people to really help them understand and them to accept
and understand that there is a God who cares about him.
You know, the mandate hasn't changed going to all the

(18:49):
world and what preach the gospel. That's what God wants
to do in us and through us. Father, I pray
right now for every single person that you would give
them a moment of truth to analyze and evaluate where
they're at in their relationship with you. Father, I pray
that we would grasp first and foremost, that our lives

(19:12):
have to scream the love of God and the truth
of God before our mouths can speak about the same.
Would you guide our time? Would you help us to
be Christians who really live like Christians for your glory
and for our good in Jesus' Day.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
You're listening to Living on the Edge, and the message
you just heard, rethinking Apologetics for the twenty first century
is from our series Dealing with Doubts. Chip will join
us in studio to share some insights from today's talk
in just a minute. How confident are you in answering
questions about God and the Bible? Do you feel a
little unprepared, wishing you would have paid a little bit

(19:54):
more attention in Sunday School. Through this insightful series, Chip
and guest teacher John Dickerson will help you better understand
the bedrock concepts of the Christian faith and confidently communicate
those truths in an engaging way. And we want to
equip you for when those meaningful conversations pop up, So
check out our resources page at Livingontheedge dot org for

(20:16):
all the details about books, podcasts, and articles referenced throughout
this series. Our goal is to connect you with trustworthy
Bible experts as you talk to those with genuine doubts
or questions. Again, visit Living on the Edge dot org
or the Chip and Gram map to browse our resources well.
Chips back with me in studio now with a quick

(20:37):
word for all of you.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I'll be right back to talk about today's message. But
before I do, I want to give you a picture
that I got to witness as a young pastor. There
was a man there who is a master craftsman. I
mean he was a cabinet maker par excellence. And I
remember watching him literally painstakingly with a piece of wood,
use a lathe, than little by little, by little by little,

(21:00):
he did all these things that I couldn't figure out
what was happening. And then, you know, all those little
moments led to this absolutely beautiful piece of cabinetry or furniture.
And you know, sometimes we think little things don't matter,
even calling them little things. And one of the quote
little things that is the backbone of Living on the
Edge are those people who support the ministry monthly. You know,

(21:23):
I don't know if you are a current supporter or
you've been praying about being a supporter but let me
tell you this. When you give monthly, it provides the
bedrock and the consistency and the stability of all that
we do here at Living on the Edge. So I
want to thank you monthly partners for all that you do,
and I would like you if you're not a supporter,
would you prayerfully today ask God do you want me

(21:45):
to support Living on the Edge. Do you want me
to help Christians live like Christians? And if so, would
you like me to do it on a regular monthly basis?
And by the way, thanks in advance whatever God leads
you to do.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Thanks Jip. As you prayerfully consider your role with this ministry,
I want to remind you that every gift is significant,
no matter the amount. When you partner with Living on
the Edge, you support and multiply the ministry work we're
doing all over the globe. So set up your monthly
gift today by going to Living on the Edge dot
org or by calling triple eight three three three six

(22:19):
zero zero three. That's Triple eight three three three six
zero zero three, or visit Living on the Edge dot org.
App listeners tap donate and let me thank you for giving.
Whatever the Lord leads you to give. Well, here again
his chip.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
As we wrap up today's program. You know, I've been
thinking about those believers in the first century that Peter
was encouraging. You know, their faith was radical, Their faith
was practical. I mean, it was lived out in the
everyday life in dynamic ways, and their faith was contagious
despite all the persecution. It was like it caught on
like wildfire, and finally their faith turned the world upside down.

(23:00):
And it got me thinking, is my faith like that?
Is my faith radical? Do I really believe that God
does miracles, that I can trust Him for everything? Is
my faith practical? Am I helping meet real life needs
of real people? Or did somehow along the way it
got transferred into going to religious services and just trying

(23:22):
to be a bit more moral? Is my faith contagious?
Are people asking you and me about what makes you tick?
And tell me about your marriage, tell me about your parenting,
Tell me why you work like this with that kind
of attitude?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know?

Speaker 1 (23:38):
The overwhelming truth is that our children are leaving the
faith because the faith they've seen in many of our
homes and churches is not attractive. Our consumer Christianity has
asked too little not too much of them and turning
to Jesus as the self help genie for a happy
life misses the mark. This generation longs for a faith

(23:59):
that make It's a real difference, that costs, something that
changes the world, not simply makes us more comfortable. Is
that what they're seeing in you and me? You see
real change. It starts with you and it starts with me.
What would it look like, beginning today for you to
have a radical, practical, contagious faith that makes a difference.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
What a great challenge, Chip, and as we close, if
you're looking for a practical way to grow in your
relationship with God, check out the Chip and Gram Map.
You can listen to our most recent series. Sign up
for daily discipleship with Chip and more. We want to
help you deepen your faith, and the Chip and Gram
Map will help you do just that. Well for Chip
and the entire team here, this is Dave Drewie thanking

(24:44):
you for listening to this edition of Living on the Edge,
and I hope you'll join us again next time.