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I Will Not Be Shaken!: Living in the Shadow of the Almighty, Part 2
From the series Be Strong and Courageous
There's only one thing worse than having a serious problem: having a serious issue and not knowing it! In this program, Chip continues his series Be Strong and Courageous. Join him as he gives a little spiritual diagnostic test to gauge where you are in your relationship with God. Discover practical steps to deepen your connection with God as you thoughtfully assess your spiritual health.

About this series
Be Strong and Courageous
Psalms to Strengthen Your Faith and Conquer Your Fear
The Greek philosopher Sophocles once wrote, “To him who is in fear - everything rustles.” Sadly, that describes our society today—fear seems to dictate our decisions and actions. Chip Ingram dives deep into eight Psalms in this powerful series to help you break free from fear and build a stronger faith. Discover how to conquer anxiety and discouragement, replace cynicism with faith, and choose to focus on God’s love and goodness even in difficult times. Join Chip as he unlocks the timeless wisdom of the Psalms and shows you how to live a life of courage and confidence in Christ.
More from this seriesMessage Transcript
Now, what I tried to do as I went through this passage and looked at my own speech, my own relationships, my values, do I keep my word or not, and where does my money go? I made a little list of very practical questions. I call it a diagnostic test. And what I'd like to do is just have you kind of lean back a bit, and if the what ifs that we started with tend to rattle around in your mind and you want to declare, "I will not be shaken.” I can't control those things out there, but I will not be shaken because I will have the Lord as my front and my rear guard. I will have God's perspective in the midst of whatever circumstance.
I will be experiencing His power and His presence. I will have nearness. I won't be wondering where is God when it all falls apart, because difficult things are going to come, and He calls us to persevere, to be bold, to be courageous in the midst of those things. And so here are some questions I want to ask you that have been very helpful and a bit painful for me. First question is, honestly, in your heart of hearts, are you living a righteous life?
Are you honest with yourself and are you honest with God? And here's sort of a little indicator, if you find it pretty hard to pray very long or very deeply, if you find yourself very, very busy, if you find that, you know, things are kind of superficial with God and you're sort of catching Him on the run, and when you really, really stop, turn off the TV, there's no Netflix, not even music in the car, and you're quiet, and you feel this dis-ease, this un-comfort. I’ve found that one of the most important things we need to do at times is just pause and say, "Search me, O God. I feel out of sync. I'm not even sure what's wrong, but I don't have peace. The connection with important people in my life, it's not like it's bad, but I know it's not where You want it to be. I mean, we all live here. And what we tend to do is eat or get busy or medicate.
And if you want a life where you can take up the promise I will never be shaken, I'll be bold and strong and courageous in the midst of whatever, do an honest inventory and just ask God to search your heart on the issues of character. Something that has helped me, 'cause I'm a verbal processor, has been, when I have that unrest and I can't quite figure it out, sometimes I just start writing, because I don't know what's wrong, but what I know, when I'm honest, is I don't feel very connected to God. Not like I've sinned or done some terrible thing. I don't feel real connected with people and I don't have peace in my life.
And so, this was not a very long time ago, but it was a window of time where we were experiencing a leadership challenge, and I was not at peace, and I was really, really struggling. And I wrote this in my journal on this particular day - "Holy Father, I am weary. The dread and the guilt of the blind spot that I've now seen in my life and the negative impact on others feels so discouraging and demotivating. I am in such great need of Your mercy, Lord. Much of the dysfunction and problems are of my own making, me trying to fix things in an area that lack leadership. I really don't know the path forward for me. A big part of me wants to just retreat."
Now, any of you ever kind of feel like that? I can't tell you how liberating it is to get that from "I'm not sure what's going on" to "Man, I'm weary. I'm tired. Some people have pointed some things out. I don't really like what they're saying, but I've taken them to the Lord and they're true."
It says, "In my most objective moments, I think, my greatest strengths are also my greatest weaknesses. I've failed once again in this area, and I seem to repeat some of these leadership mistakes over and over. I've asked for Your forgiveness, and I know I've received it. Your hand of favor has been supernaturally on the ministry and on my life, and yet, boy, part of my role and part of this path, I honestly don't know the way forward. It's just not clear to me."
Can I tell you something? The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. You know, we can talk about being holy, we can talk about being righteous, we can talk about being blameless, we can talk about our speech. The core of your relationship with God is being honest.
Psalm 145:18 is a verse that's just meant a lot to me, especially when I struggle and I know I've blown it. It says, "The Lord is near to those who call upon Him," and then here's the condition, "to those who call upon Him in truth."
I mean, I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I was processing information, and there were some things that weren't going very well. And then I wrote down, kind of like a psalm, I came out the other end, "Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me, this morning through my wife, that I'm not in this alone, that You are mindful that I am human, that You know when I mess up, and that when I come to You like this, that You forgive." You see, If you don't want to be shaken, you can't fake it. So, step one is do an honest inventory and just ask God to search your heart on the issues of character.
The second is, I would say, this is a tough one, do a ruthless evaluation of your speech. Jesus said in Luke 6, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man brings forth what is evil; for the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart."
This has been painful, but helpful. According to Jesus, the words that come out of my mouth and, we'll learn a little bit later, where my money goes are probably the two most objective means of evaluating where you're honestly at in your relationship with God. Because if there's negativity, if there's slander, if there's complaining, if there's whining, if there's blaming, if there's calling other people out, if there's critical words, if there's sarcastic words, passive-aggressive words, thoughtless words, those are the kind of things that say something's wrong in your heart. And this passage says if you want to be rock-solid with God, he says: First of all, you’ve got to be honest and be a person of character.
And I hope... The only reason I read my journal, I just want you to know that that's a journey. That doesn't mean you've got it all together. That means when things aren't quite right, you go to God and figure out, what are the issues? Jesus was so clear. He longs for us to be perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect, but as AW Tozer said so wisely, "God's desires for us are very great and His expectations are very reasonable." He understands we're human. He understands we struggle. It's when we won't admit it, it's when we lie to ourselves and we start posing and image management, that's when we lose, that's when we lose the relationship.
So, what does your speech say about you? What comes out of your mouth? People say you're a positive person, an encouraging person? Let me just encourage you to listen. Listen to yourself in conversation. Like, God, I want to know. See, the pure in heart, right? Jesus said the pure in heart see God. And you can know what's going on in your heart when you do a little analysis of your words. Third is some probing examination of your loyalty. I think one of the things that's happened in our world of media and, don't let me put this on you, but I have found myself like watching a movie, and because of the way it gets set up, there's like this guy treating his wife like dirt, and so she decides to have an affair, and I find myself rooting for someone who's really doing some things that are really bad and really wrong. This isn't taking me down a great path.
What goes into our mind… what we admire. Ask yourself, what kind of movies do you watch? What excites you? See, over time, little by little, you can find yourself rooting for the wrong team, and your allegiance becomes in directions that are unhealthy. And it can happen 90% in your mind, 90% in just what you watch and what you listen to. And God says, "I want your mind and your heart and your speech and your loyalty. I want you to see the things that are good and pleasant and beautiful and noble. I want you to set your mind on these things and not on things that pull you away."
One of the questions I try to ask myself, whether it's a conversation, whether it's a book, whether it's a movie, whether it's a series, as I'm in it, because there's a lot out there, is this experience drawing me closer to God or farther away? And when I find myself coming to, you know, this is not drawing me closer to God, that's when I say, Okay, Lord, there's an allegiance issue. There's a loyalty issue. Help me. I don't know if you're listening carefully, but when you start going through speech and relationships and our values, it is really hard. It is somewhat overwhelming to live a pure and godly and holy life. But I think there might be a connection between, yes, it's hard, but it's possible, and the number of fellow believers that find themselves, when a "what-if" happens, their life craters. The cancer comes, and they fall apart. The problem in the marriage gets difficult, and they run and flee. They have an issue with one of their kids, and everything falls apart.
We can't be bold and we can't be courageous unless our lives are rooted in alignment with God. And Psalm 15 says, "Check these things out." The final one here, he says, "What about your money? Behind it, it's more than interest. Are you using your money to help and encourage people or are you taking an advantage of people with your money? And as I said earlier, there's probably nothing more revealing than knowing, where does your money go?
About every five years or so, it's painful, but I have a financial planner, and, uh, he asks me to do a little exercise. And he says, "You know, just for a month. Just for 30 days." And I'll go, "Aw, no, I don't want to do that. I, you know, I got a semi-budget and things are working out okay." He says, "No, no, no, just for a month, I want you to track 100% of where all your money goes. Whether it's on a card here, just... and, in 30 days, write down all the categories of where it goes. Food here, entertainment here, giving over here, bought that over here… and don't feel guilty. All I want you to do is do a sober self-assessment of where does your money go?"
And even when I start in on that, like I'm three or four or five days into it, I'm starting to analyze, well, gosh, why am I, (laughs) why am I spending this here or why I'm doing that here. And it's always revealing. And it just allows me to kind of reset and just stop and say, "Okay, this is how much money's coming in. And this portion is going here, and this is going here, and I had no idea I was spending that much money on, you name it," right? Sports, coffee, entertainment. Not bad things, but I just had no idea.
So, here's what the psalmist is saying to you and to me. God loves us so very, very much that He has created a means and a way called living a godly, righteous, or holy life, and that as we seek to do that imperfectly, with a merciful and kind and compassionate heavenly Father, who really gets we won't be perfect, but as He sees the intention of our heart, as He sees a character of righteousness in general, of speech that we want to align that reveals a pure heart, with our money and with our relationships and with our values saying, Lord, I'm Yours, and I want my life, my speech, my values, my relationship to reflect the person of Jesus. And I know the journey will be forever and ever and ever, but I'm consistently leaning, moving toward doing that. He says, "In My great grace, you'll never be shaken."
And there is one passage that is a bit of a parallel to this. And this passage is a passage that I have memorized, and talk about meditating. I've gone over this one over and over and over, taking a walk, driving in my car, because it sets something up, but it gives me such hope. Listen carefully as Isaiah answers the question in chapter 33. In chapter 33, verse 14, the question is raised, “Who can live in the presence of God?” The exact same question. And then he answers it in verse 15 and 16,
"He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil."
That line alone, I cannot tell you how many times I've been on planes, and I've started to watch a movie, and I'm 10 minutes into it, or 15 or 20, and it says "stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed... shuts his eyes from looking upon evil." And I click, and I go, You know, Lord, that will not help me be the man You want me to be.
I actually have to load stuff up on my iPad that'll be good and encouraging and wise. Notice what he goes on to say. After you walk in righteousness, speak with sincerity, reject unjust gain, you stop your ears from hearing about bloodshed and you shut your eyes from looking upon evil, listen to this, "He will dwell on heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, and his waters will be sure."
Do you get the picture? You can live above all the what-ifs because of something deep and powerful inside, as the Spirit of God, takes the Word of God and gives you a perspective and a relationship. And not only that, you'll be an impregnable rock. I mean, it's just like you are rock solid. You'll never be shaken.
Could I encourage you to be bold and courageous, to say to God, "I want to develop the most intimate relationship with You that I can. And I'm going to do an honest test and assessment of my life, my character, my speech, my values, my money, because You made a promise through David, he who does these things will never be shaken." It will give you a sense of confidence, a sense of rock-solid belief that you won't be moved. The world's going to move.
The what-ifs, some of them are going to come into your life, they're going to come into mine, but it's who you're connected to, the perspective you have, and the grace that is available that will allow you in the midst of that to not just survive, but to actually thrive. That's God's game plan. He's done it throughout history. He's done it in the Old Testament, He's done it in New Testament, and He wants to do it in your life, and He wants to do it in mine. Never has the world needed these kind of followers of Jesus than right now.