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Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Daily Podcast - Be Prepared - Don't Be Surprised (2 Timothy 3), Part 1 · Disciple Radio

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Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
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Have you ever wondered what the Bible means when
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it says we're living in the last days and what
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to expect? Today we'll answer that question.
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Stay with me. When things fall apart, when violence
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rises, trust erodes, and people close to you
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seem to be drifting, how do you stay grounded?
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Paul had a very specific answer for Timothy.
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And today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram
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helps us realize that answer for ourselves as
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he turns to 2 Timothy. I'm Dave Drewy, and we're
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in a series called You Can Make Disciples, Personal
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Coaching from the Apostle Paul. If you have your
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Bible handy, go ahead and turn to 2 Timothy chapter
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3, starting in verse 1. Now here's Chip with
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today's message titled, Be Prepared, Don't Be
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Surprised. When we are surprised, we react. When
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we are prepared, we respond. When we are surprised
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by things, we react. When we are prepared, we
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respond. And I thought about how when you're
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surprised, and when you're surprised by evil,
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it's disorienting. I think the last few years
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have been very disorienting, haven't they been?
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I mean, it's just, it's like violence and evil
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and it's grown and grown and grown, but then
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it kind of got like, it went nuts. It was similar
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to... is a fellow that I knew. I did know him
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real well. He actually had gone to seminary.
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He visited our church quite a bit. He was in
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the area. And I got a phone call from his wife,
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said, this is absolutely crazy. Will you please
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help my husband? And he's in jail right now.
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I said, he's what? Yes, he's in jail. They've
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accused him of sexual molestation. So I got to
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find out what's going on and he's in jail and
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I call him in jail and what's going on and huge
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misunderstanding and I have no idea what's going
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on here and maybe someone's made accusations
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and so I jump into it and I happen to know the
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DA pretty well and got on the inside to find
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out. I think there's a tremendous injustice.
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I mean, this guy went to this seminary and he's
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this person in the community. And, you know,
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I'm trying to help his wife and just thinking,
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oh, my gosh. And DA says, Chip, can we talk?
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I said, yeah. He said, well, there's been this
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allegation. Yeah. He said, but the reason he
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is where he is is that we have a number of others
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who aren't willing at this point yet to testify
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publicly, but we have a string of these. What?
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You know what? It's true. It's true. When evil
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surprises you, when things start happening that
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are almost hard to digest, it's very disorienting.
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And my first thought was, well, do I not have
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any discernment anymore? I mean, how could I
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never see anything? Or what's happening to the
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world? And then thoughts like... well, who can
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I really trust? And can we believe in people,
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right? And then you see, and then now it's happened
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all across the culture. And so Paul warns of
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an increase in wickedness in the last days. And
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we'll talk about the last days. Let me just read
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verses one through about five. But realize this.
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That in the last days, difficult times will come.
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That word difficult can also mean dangerous,
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challenging. For people will be lovers of self
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and lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanders,
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disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving,
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irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self
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-control. brutal, haters of good, treacherous,
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reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
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than the lovers of God, holding, notice the context
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of this, holding to a form of godliness although
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they've denied its power. Command, avoid such
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people as these. So let's ask and answer two
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questions and then let's dig in and talk about
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what are the implications. Question number one
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should be, Are we in the last days, right? Hebrews
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chapter one. God, after he spoke long ago to
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the fathers and the prophets and in many portions
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and many ways, in these last days has spoken
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to us through his son, whom he appointed heir
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of all things, through whom he also made the
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world. When Jesus came, And revealed himself
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as the son of God and the Messiah and the savior
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of the world. Biblically speaking, that's when
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the last days begin. We are in the last days.
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Because this is the last installment. There isn't
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something else coming later. This is the era
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of the church, of God's appeal, of salvation.
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And depending on your theology, you're turning
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the end times. Church will be raptured. The Lord
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will return. He'll set up his kingdom. And on
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we go. We are in the last days. Now, what we
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need to understand is that we're a couple thousand
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years from when the last days began. And so I
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think it's fair to say, like, how long are these
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last days? Well, after a few decades of the church,
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some early Christians were saying, hey, you know,
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what's the deal with the last days? And so in
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1 Peter 3, Peter explains, know this first of
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all, that in the last days, mockers will come
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with their mocking, following after their own
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desires and saying, where's the promise of his
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coming? For since the father's fell asleep, all
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things continue just as they were from the beginning
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of creation. For when they maintain this, it
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escapes their notice that by the word of God,
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the heavens existed long ago and the earth was
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formed out of the water by the water through
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which the world at that time was destroyed by
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being flooded with water. But by his word, the
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present heavens and earth are being reserved
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for fire, kept for the day of judgment, destruction
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of the ungodly people. Do not let this one fact
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escape you. Notice, beloved, that with the Lord,
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one day is like a thousand years and a thousand
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years like one day. The Lord is not slow about
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his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
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toward you, not willing for any to perish, but
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for all to come to repentance. And so I think
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when you open this chapter and he says, mark
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this, Timothy, in the last days, evil things
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are going to come. And then he starts to lay
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them out. He's saying, in the last days, beginning
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now, these are the kind of things you're going
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to see. And the inference here is, as we get
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closer and closer, these kind of things will
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intensify and become more and more the norm instead
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of the exception. Does that make sense? What
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Timothy needed to know was the things that he
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was seeing that was so overwhelming and so wicked
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were what Jesus said would happen. What characterizes
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the increase of wickedness is primarily self
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-love, love of money, love of pleasure, and then
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the dominoes. How about this? Lean back. Amplify
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Bible. But understand this, that in the last
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days, dangerous times of great stress and trouble
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will come. Difficult days that will be hard to
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bear. For people will be lovers of self, narcissistic,
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self -focused, lovers of money, impelled by greed,
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boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to
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parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. And
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they will be unloving. They'll be devoid of natural
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human affection. They'll be calloused. and inhumane,
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irreconcilable. They'll gossip maliciously. They'll
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be devoid of any self -control, intemperate and
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immoral. They'll be brutal, haters of good, traitors
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in relationships, reckless and conceited, lovers
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of sensual pleasure rather than lovers of God,
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holding to a form of outward godliness, religion,
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although they have denied its power, for their
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conduct nullifies their claim of faith. Avoid
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such people and keep far away from them. And
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then he's going to give a couple of examples
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so that Timothy realizes, hey, this has happened
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in the past. And so the question I put here is,
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how are we tempted to interpret these developments?
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When you've seen all this wickedness and all
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this violence and stuff happening, down deep,
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what are your feelings? What have you done? Where
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are your fears? And you know what we would hear?
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Just feels like the world's out of control. Feels
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hopeless. I'm scared to death for those of you
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that are grandparents or for those of you parents.
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What kind of world are my kids gonna come into?
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Is it even gonna be safe to walk in the streets
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in the future, right? These are the kind of things
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that create incredible angst, anxiety, depression.
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Division. When things are really getting crazy,
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what do we do? We're all human, right? Remember
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when we were little kids and things got really
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hard, you blame your brother, you blame your
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sister. Well, when they get really hard in a
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society, you find some other people to blame.
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And it's them and the problems out there. And
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we get more and more and more divided. And we
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create this... petri dish culturally of anger
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and blame and hurt and suspicion and lack of
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trust and fear. And that's the temptation that
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we have. And in the midst of that, there's this
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supernatural community, this group of people
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that is what's called the body of Jesus. his
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hands, his feet, his eyes, people that live above
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all that fray, people who understand the fallenness
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of mankind, people who recognize the things that
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they have done and been forgiven of, people who
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grasp that this is our opportunity in the midst
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of all this pain and blame and violence, this
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is the opportunity to love and to heal and to
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respond and to set an example. And what Paul
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is saying to Timothy is, This is going to be
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the normal thing, but you got to understand this
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is how people react. For some people, you isolate.
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For some people, they begin to doubt. You know,
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I don't believe anymore that God's sovereign.
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If he was, we wouldn't be having this. This isn't
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the life. I've gone to church. I tithe. I read
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my Bible regularly. And look at what happened.
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Look what happened in my world. Look what happened
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in our company. Look what happened in our nation,
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right? Do you understand where this goes? That's
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why he's writing to Timothy and that's why we're
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reading it today. We're tempted to feel hopeless
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and helpless and blame and question God's purposes.
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We'll be right back with more from Chip Ingram
12:16
here on Living on the Edge. If you want to see
12:19
Chip teach, not just hear him, the Living on
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share a message with someone who prefers video.
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So check it out today by searching for Living
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12:41
be sure to hit subscribe. Now back to the message.
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How are we to respond to these developments?
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Look at verse 6. He says, avoid, turn away from
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such people and their behavior. The two temptations
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are to, one, compromise or to isolate. It's like,
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you know what? It's so crazy out there. I'm just
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going to kind of watch it on TV and hope it doesn't
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get too close to me and, you know, my little
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world. The problem is your little world keeps
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shrinking, right? The flip side is, we've all
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heard that illustration where you put the frog
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in water and you do the temperature very, very,
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very slowly. I think as it erodes more and more
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in the culture, you're going to see more and
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more things that even five years ago, Christians
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would never do this that will become commonplace
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because people will compromise. I was counseling
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with a, a person a year or so ago, and a godly
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person, great family, and a couple of his godly
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friends, and one was going through a tough time,
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and he kind of tried to help his buddy, and eventually,
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you know, they got a divorce. Then it happened
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to another close friend, and so his couple closest
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friends are going through these things, and then,
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you know, they entered a new world. Now they're
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wounded, now they're hurt, and now they're sort
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of... Back in it? Well, now they're sleeping
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around. And I said, you know, what do you think
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about all that? Well, I'm really trying to help.
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I'm really trying to help them. And I said, are
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they willfully just kind of living that out?
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Yeah, but, you know, we're talking. And I, you
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know how pastors are, I pulled out the Bible.
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And so I said, you know, I know you want to help
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them. This passage says when a so -called brother
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or sister is living in willful sin and you talk
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to them and they don't respond at all, don't
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even eat with them. Don't keep providing the
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spiritual and relational support that facilitates
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the benefits of being in the body of Christ instead
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of allowing the consequences of their actions
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to be, remember what Paul said, I turn this one
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over to Satan to buffet him. The goal wasn't
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to hurt him. It was to restore that person that
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was involved in immorality in the Corinthian
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church. And I'll never forget, he said, well,
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you know, I could never do that. Which was followed
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sometime later by a moral failure in his life.
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1 Corinthians 15, 33. Bad company corrupts good
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morals every time. And none of us are immune.
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It's happening so subtly. And it's not just in
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the sexual area. Ask yourself, how are people
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viewing money? How are people viewing priorities?
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How are people viewing sort of what's acceptable
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or not acceptable? And I don't mean culturally,
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I mean from what the scripture says. And so notice
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how he picks it up. He talks about the specific
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ways these people live it out. For among them
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are those who slip into households and captivate
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weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by
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various impulses. Always learning, never. able
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to come to a knowledge of the truth. So he says,
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Timothy, this is a current example of how these
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things, not just in the last days, some days,
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some way, but these things are playing out right
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now. You just need to be aware. And then he gives
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him a historic example. And then he goes on to
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say, just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses,
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so these men also opposed the truth. Men of depraved
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minds, worthless in regard to the faith. By tradition,
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those were two of the magicians who when Moses
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did, remember all those supernatural things,
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they could copy it, copy it, copy it until he
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did some things that required the creation of
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life. And he goes, you know, it's happening today.
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It happened back in Moses' days. And then notice,
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but he says, look at the outcome. Look at the
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outcome. But they will not make further progress,
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for their foolishness will be obvious to all,
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just as it was also of Janus and Jambres. So
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you're Timothy, you know your Old Testament,
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and you're thinking of the challenge and the
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bondage and what they went through. And Moses,
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who was bold, and before being bold, what he
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got? He got knocked by Pharaoh and he got knocked
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by his own people. Do you see the picture he's
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trying to see? And so Moses gave up and said,
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I guess it's not worth it. Oh no, that's not
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how the story goes. So Moses hung in there. And
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Moses had challenges and doubts and struggles.
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And the Lord was with him. And he's saying, Timothy,
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this is how life goes. And now he wants to sort
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of help him get on the positive side of things.
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You'll notice. In the next section, I just entitled
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this, Don't Be Afraid, Keep Pressing Ahead, verses
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10 through 17. Don't be afraid. We can't live
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our life out of the lens of fear. You have to
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live your life out of a lens of faith. But this
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kind of evil causes us to question that. That
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kind of evil causes us to wonder, can we trust
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God? Can we trust his promises? And what Paul's
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trying to help him see is, okay, Timothy, so
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notice this. Let's remember some of your past
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progress. Verse 10, now you, he's contrasting
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him with these people that are going down very
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bad paths. Now you followed my teaching, conduct,
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purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance.
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persecutions and suffering such as happened to
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me in Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what
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persecutions I endured and out of them all, what's
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the punchline? The Lord rescued me. I would encourage
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you to remember past progress, to literally kind
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of look in the rear view mirror, not maybe a
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year or two, but But to try and even if you need
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to sit quietly and ask God or especially with
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family members, where has God shown up in the
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most challenging and difficult times in our life?
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And you would start to tell stories about taking
19:28
one of your kids to the ICU. You talk about a
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time in some of our cases when one of you had
19:36
cancer and it was very questionable whether you're
19:39
going to make it. And you start looking back,
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looking back, looking back, looking back, and
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you would have a story that God has rescued you
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out of things in the past. He's not idle. And
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by the way, I know I'm a broken record. If you
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keep watching a lot of news, you will live in
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fear. Because the news is made and geared to
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be sensational. It's to get your attention and
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to keep you watching. And when you keep watching,
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since you're a product of your thought life,
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you will assume that things that are happening
20:17
on the news are going to happen to you. And the
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lens in which you will look at the world is it's
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negative, it's violent, it's terrible, it's bad,
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and it's not gonna get better. And so your only
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two choices are one is to isolate or to compromise
20:31
or medicate yourself in some way. And you can
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do it with drugs, you can do it with alcohol,
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you can do it with work, you can do it with escape.
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And so, you know, you need to kind of be aware
20:43
of what's going on. But if you get on and watch
20:47
your news feeds and you scroll and every time
20:50
that thing goes off, oh, can you hear it? There's
20:52
another shooting. And what about this? And what
20:54
about that? When's the last time someone said,
20:57
I'd just like to declare that in the last 10
20:59
minutes there were about 27 .5 million acts of
21:03
kindness of people who cared for one another.
21:05
I got an email from a friend who works in the
21:07
Global South, and he gave the statistics of the
21:10
number of people in the last two or three years
21:13
that have come to Christ in the Global South.
21:15
It's more of all the people that have come to
21:17
Christ in all of church history. God's working
21:20
in power. You don't get any good news. God's
21:22
working in amazing ways here and all around the
21:25
world. There's young people that are on fire
21:27
for God. They're not all just a bunch of slackers.
21:29
But you know what? It's not going to make the
21:32
news. And we have, by and large, a church that
21:37
is living out of fear. This is Living on the
21:42
Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled Be
21:45
Prepared, Don't Be Surprised. It comes from our
21:48
series called You Can Make Disciples, personal
21:50
coaching from the Apostle Paul. Every lesson
21:53
is available for you to revisit and share at
21:56
livingontheedge .org. And the Living on the Edge
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podcast is another great way to listen wherever
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you go. Subscribe today and take it with you.
22:05
Full -length sermons from Chip are also available
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on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast wherever you
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listen. The world is loud. The pull away from
22:15
God is constant. And Paul's word to Timothy and
22:18
to us is be prepared, not surprised. If you want
22:22
tools for that kind of readiness, Chip's book,
22:25
Yes, You Really Can Change, gives you the inside
22:28
-out framework for that kind of staying power.
22:31
How God's grace actually produces lasting change,
22:34
not just better behavior. And since this series
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is about investing in others, every purchase
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includes a second copy to pass along to someone
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You know, for 30 years, Living on the Edge has
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at Living on the Edge, P .O. Box 3007, Atlanta,
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Georgia, 30024. Well, now here's Chip with some
23:29
final thoughts. As we close today's program,
23:32
the teaching from the Scripture brought to mind
23:36
one of the most challenging things in my life.
23:39
There's times where God says, Chip, this is what
23:42
I want you to do. But the moment I think of obeying
23:45
it, I realize I'm going to disappoint someone
23:47
or someone's going to think that if I do that,
23:51
I don't care about them anymore. Pleasing people
23:53
or pleasing God, I feel between the rock and
23:56
the hard place. And here's my question for you
23:59
today. What is it that God has prompted and brought
24:03
to your mind, maybe over and over, about a relationship
24:06
or about a habit or about a practice? But you
24:10
know if you obey God, some people will be very
24:13
disappointed. or you think you're going to let
24:16
them down, or they'll think less of you. Would
24:19
you be willing today to ask Jesus to give you
24:22
the strength and the help to obey him? Here's
24:26
your verse for the day, Proverbs 29, 25. The
24:30
fear of man is a snare, but blessed is he who
24:34
trusts in the Lord. Trust God, you'll never regret
24:38
it. I'm Dave Drewy. Chip has a question he's
24:41
been asking church leaders for years, and the
24:43
answer shocked him. Don't miss the next part
24:46
of our message. Be prepared. Don't be surprised.
24:49
Next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program
24:55
is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.