Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. You know, in our day, we hear a lot of people talk about spiritual maturity. What a what a powerful phrase. Spiritual maturity. Can I ask you a question? Are you spiritually mature? How do you know?

Well, today I'll give you God's fourfold criteria for measuring your spiritual growth and how you can become the person you've always wanted to become. Stay with us.

Guest (Male): What does it actually take to become the person you long to be? In our last message, Chip Ingram gave us the first half of the answer, straight from Ephesians chapter 4. Today on Living on the Edge, he picks right up where he left off. I'm Dave Drewy, and we're continuing our series called Free at Last. How to break out of a destructive lifestyle? If you've missed any part of our study, just go online to livingontheedge.org. Well, now here's Chip with part two of How to Become the Person You've Always Longed to Be.

Chip Ingram: If you have your Bible, open to Ephesians chapter 4. We pick it up in verse 11, and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Verse 14, as a result, in other words, the impact is, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine by trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. From whom the whole body, speaking of the church, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part that causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

There's three principles and a proof that flow out of this passage. Principle number one tells us what leaders are to do. Leaders are gifted to equip God's people for service. It's what leaders do. And then he gives four examples of leaders in the early church. And you'll notice he literally gives the foundation. He says, first there's apostles. The word apostle literally means one who is sent with a commission. Jesus had many disciples, but he chose 12 apostles.

The qualifications for being an apostle is you had to be actually with the risen Christ from his baptism onto the rest of his ministry. Now, there's the office of apostle. You have these 12. And then you have the the function of apostle. These are people that aren't original apostles because there's no one living today that actually, right, was back when Jesus was resurrected. But this function of starting new things, the idea of missionaries, people who start ministries, there's a function of apostleship.

And then after he had the apostles, there's the prophets. In the early church, didn't they didn't have a New Testament. And so they got revelation from God. Prophecy primarily is the foretelling of God's truth. Then you have evangelists. These are people gifted with an extraordinary gift and a winsomeness that lead lost people into an understanding of a saving knowledge of Christ. And when you're around them, they motivate the rest of us to do the work of an evangelist, to really care about people outside of Christ.

And then once they're sent and once there's truth and once people come to Christ, then pastor-teachers. The word pastor literally just means a shepherd. It's someone who comes along someone and says, I want to help you through the valleys and the ups and the downs and the struggles, and I'm going to teach you the truth so that you understand this is how God wants your marriage to work. This is what God says in terms of living a single life. This is how he his instruction about your finances, your dreams, your ambition. Here's how you deal with these kind of temptations.

And the goal of apostles and prophets and evangelists, and pastors and teachers is to equip God's people for the work of service. So that literally we become the body of Christ. Jesus when he was on the earth would walk around and if someone needed a cup of cold water, with his hands, he would give him a cup of cold water. Or if they needed food, he would break some bread and pray over it and give them food. But today, Jesus body is us.

But what you got to understand is the role of leaders are to equip. Notice the second principle. Second principles are every member is a minister. You you are the hope of your neighborhood, the hope of your family, the hope of where you work. You are a full-time minister of the gospel. Leaders' job is to help equip you personally, spiritually, relationally, so you can be an effective minister in your home and at your school and your work, in your neighborhood.

And I remember the story, I always liked the the old Westerns. We still kind of watch them. And I always love the part on the old, you know, Westerns where the bank's been robbed. What are we going to do? And then the marshal comes up, all right, fellas. We're going to form a posse. And then what's he do? All right, Marshal Dylan, I'm going to deputize all you people. And then what do they do? They all get on their horses and have their guns. They now have the power to go do exactly what the sheriff does.

Can I tell you, when you came to Christ, God gave gifted leaders to equip you. You're deputized. You can counsel, you can lead people to Christ. You can share your faith. You can open your home. You have a unique DNA in terms of relationships, spiritual gifts, backgrounds, opportunities and often your deepest hurts. Often the things that you have been through that you feel like, oh, will be the very things that will help the people in this valley understand who Christ is.

And I want you to know you've been deputized. I remember a really interesting experience because we talk about life change and sometimes when we talk about authentic community, we if you're not careful, you can get authentic community to mean, I'm in a great small group. I'm privately reading the Bible. We share deeply. It's a great time together. We are having these wonderful relationships and I guess this is authentic community. No, no, no, no, that's part of authentic community.

See, authentic community isn't just about what you get or deep relationships or accountability. Authentic community has to do with being fitted in the right spot so that those kind of relationships are on mission to fulfill what Jesus said when he said, go therefore and make disciples. And if you're not involved in not just receiving and loving and caring and the word, but serving out of the supernatural deposit of gift, your life doesn't change and you don't experience this power.

I had a weird experience with this. Uh, I didn't grow up as a Christian and I came to Christ, and then I coached, and when I coached, I did Bible studies with my players. And then after Teresa and I got married, we both were in a college ministry. Um, she was working and I was coaching and working. And then like on Tuesday and Thursday morning, I'd meet with a group of guys and she met one evening with a group of gals that she was discipling. And then once a week, we'd have all these people over. And our lives were filled with caring and loving and discipling and I mean it was very fulfilling.

That's why I actually thought, I think God wants me, Chip, regular ordinary person, to actually be a pastor. And I thought, you got to be kidding. God certainly you have to be smarter than me and a lot more holy than me. And God said, no, actually you'll do. So I said, okay. And and so we go to seminary and and you know, in in West Virginia, like a huge church is 200 people. I mean, there's only a million people in the whole state.

A mega mega church is like 300 people and we were in a church of about 200 people. And when we get to Dallas and it was like, oh my lands. And and people invited us. So we ended up at this church of about 2,500 people and the pastor was awesome and had all these seminary professors teaching Sunday school classes. I went to a Sunday school class on the Psalms and the editor of the NIV Bible when it was being developed, he taught the class. And then you've got, you know, this guy who wrote seven books. And so, I mean, it was like, I mean, every it was like going to a conference every weekend. You go to a class over here and amazing things for your kids. And so it was like, wow, wow, week one, week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven. And you know, I'm getting all this stuff at seminary and we're trying to figure out life.

And I'll never forget, I had an interesting experience because I mean, great, great, great teaching. And I can still remember getting right to the door of where you went in this big church. And I turned to my wife and I said, Do you feel like going to church today? And and please don't make too heavy an application on this. Um, she said, no. I said, me neither. You want to go to Wendy's? She goes, sure. Sorry.

So we did. And so, you know, they they're doing this great stuff with their kids. So we go to Wendy's. And we get in Wendy's and I said, honey, something's wrong. I mean, I've never been to a church with such good teaching. I've never been to a church with such great programs. But man, I just feel. I think that was the word I used. And she said, I feel exactly the same way. I said, Well, what what could be wrong? We're here preparing for the ministry and she said, Well, why did we come?

And we began to talk about what a normal week was like in West Virginia. And you know what I realized? I realized that all I was doing was eating spiritually, but there was no exercise. The grace of God wasn't flowing through me to help other people. And so I I mean, I was in this small group and I was getting all this great teaching. Becoming the person you long to become cannot happen by being simply a spectator and a receiver of great spiritual food in a great spiritual environment. It's by that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part.

And I remember writing on a napkin, I said, okay, we're we're going we got to fix this. So, you know, I'm I'm working full-time. I've gone to school full-time. I don't have any time, but I'm thinking, if my my spiritual life is I mean, I'm I'm doing a dive. There's no power, there's no energy, there's no life. And so I I got an appointment with the pastor and uh we sat down at this booth in this little restaurant, and on a 3x5 card, I had my name, my phone number, what I thought my spiritual gifts were, uh ministry experience I've had in college ministries, and then I pretended I had to go to the bathroom.

Excuse me. I can go to the bathroom. I'll be right back. And I handed him the card. And on the back of it said, you tell me any place in this church you need help, I'm in. And so I went to the bathroom. two and a half minutes, maybe he needs three, you know. I want to make sure he reads the card well. I came back, and we sat down and Don says, well, hey, it seems like you've had some ministry experience. I said, You can check me out however you want. I got to get back in the game.

We ended up doing the high school ministry. Six or eight months later, we ended up doing the college ministry. And life, leaders are gifted to equip. Every member is a minister. And if you aren't ministering, you know those little things where I said, Can you imagine what it would be like to forgive someone so deeply that your first reaction would be you rejoice? That's supernatural. That doesn't happen by reading your Bible alone and trying real hard to, you know, change some habits.

Guest (Male): We'll continue in a moment here on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. While you're with us, if you've never checked out the Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram YouTube channel, you're missing a whole other side of this ministry. It's full of teaching series you won't see anywhere else. Things like BIO, Three Essential Practices to Becoming Like Jesus, and The I Choose Joy series, just to name a few. It's a great way to go deeper with Chip's teaching or to send a friend something to watch. Just search Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram on YouTube and take a look around. Well, now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: See, there is a design. There is a spiritual cocoon. There is a master creator. And he says the way it works is when leaders equip and every member is a minister, then amazing things happen. And in verse 13, it's that ministries are developed to help every believer to live every day in every way just as Jesus would live if he were living out his life in their physical body.

All I want you to know is that I now have the ability to say this is a new one. I can say in even more words what Paul was saying in verse 13. And he usually he uses a lot of words. By that, no, notice what he says. He talks about until you become a mature man to the fullness of the stature to the body of Christ. And what I want you to know is that in God's design, when leaders equip instead of do all the ministry and rob people of it, when every member realizes, you know something, okay, I'm in school, or I'm a stay-at-home mom, or I'm working in this company, but I am his representative.

I am the living Christ inside of me. The hope for this whole department may be me. I may be the only Christian. How I live, how I talk, how I love, when and how I communicate is the hope of the world. I'm a minister. I don't have a little collar, but I'm a minister. And then what happens is when this occurs, ministries, in other words, outreach to people are developed so that every single believer lives every day in every way.

So it's not like it starts at work, but it's at home. It's or it's with your roommate. It's in your neighborhood. It's it's realizing, you know, just step outside your door or your apartment and look around and realize nine out of 10 of most all the people in this part of the country where I live do not have a personal relationship with God. And there is great need and there's a God who loves them, and then after they die, because I spent yesterday with a guy that they told had about six or nine months to live and when you look in the eyes of very powerful people with all kind of background and they know they have six or nine months to live, they act very differently.

He said, you know, when it's theory, you know, you die, but it gets real different when it's up close. And he was seated across his bed and I I asked him. I I was amazed at how bold I was. So, what are they telling you? Less than a year. What are you most afraid of? You know why I was so bold? He's going to die. He's going to die. And right now all indications are that he's going to die apart from Christ.

I said, I don't know all about your past life and how many regrets you might have, but you don't want to have eternal regrets. I want you to know there's a Jesus, there's a God who cares and he's prepared a place for you if you'll receive his gift. And you know, he looked at me and you know what hit me this morning? Everyone I meet's going to die. Is this true or not? You know your neighbors? I got news for you. Flash, they're going to die. You know your co-workers? They're going to die. You know your family? They're going to die.

You know what makes you bold when you get it? And we stopped worrying about so much how people think of us and we start realizing, I have a supernatural endowment and power inside of me. The living God lives inside of me and he cares about them and the only issue is me getting over me. But the only way I get over me is when I get equipped by leaders. And the only way I learn to minister is when I take baby steps and start doing it. And you know, when you start doing it, guess what you fail a lot. Okay.

You know, when I see Jesus with the disciples, you know what I notice? They fail a lot. You find me in the gospels where he yells at them for failing. I can't find it. The only time he gets upset is, where's your faith? You got to be kidding me. You're not even trying. Oh, you have little faith. So, leaders equip us. We are all the ministers. And then ministries are birthed. This is how the church works.

Church isn't coming and listening and spectating, saying the music was okay, the guy kept me awake most of the time. Now I'm going to go out and try and be a nice person. That's not it. It's you getting equipped. It's you being a full-time minister. It's you watching ministries grow and develop according to your hearts and your passions, and you begin to serve. And as you do, the grace of God comes inside of you and he uses you and you have this amazing experience where people's eternities and families and marriages and kids are completely transformed because of an ordinary piece of clay like you in whom the living spirit of God lives and he gifts you and trains you and you take baby steps of faith and you fail and you struggle and have ups and downs, but in the midst of all your weakness and hurt, the power of God is displayed.

See, that's what happened in the early church. I mean, they didn't even have technology. And they multiplied. In fact, a young man I was uh meeting with a a young pastor doing a little mentoring, and he's he's planted a church. And so they grew to about 300 people and he said, you know, now this group is kind of feeling like it's a younger church and a lot of college age and he said, I I'm watching now the church is kind of focused on, hey, we really like this and we're kind of different. It's kind of working for us. He said, my biggest challenge now is to help us remember, we planted this church to reach another generation.

He said, here's my goal for this year. We have 300 people. My goal is that every single person will lead just one person to Christ. I mean, we're going to we're going to train them, we're going to help them, we're going to love them, but just every person, 300 people, this time next year, we're going to pray and dream and ask God that these 300 people would lead another 300 people to Christ. I thought, wow, that's a great goal and how are you going to go about that? And he laid it out for me.

And you know, sometimes when you're mentoring or you're supposed to be helping people, you realize when you're done, I think this is helping me way more than him. Leaders are the equippers. Ministries will grow and develop. Special ministries to special age groups and special needs and special backgrounds out of your hurts and your pains and your gifts and your passions. And then what you'll see is this is what happens. You'll find that there'll be doctrinal stability. You'll find people because they're in the word, you know what? They can spot a false teacher.

As a result, we're no longer children, right, tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine. As a result, what you find is people have authentic relationships. You do ministry with people and you fail and you struggle and you pray together pretty soon, you're tight. Not just in a small group, but you're tight. And they're loved. And there's full participation. It's by that which you every joint supplied, we need you. Here's the deal. This isn't like, I hear some people like, well, I don't need to go to church because, you know, there's nature, and I've got a Bible, and there's God, and I don't need the church. Okay, granted.

We need you. Okay? I mean, you know it's like saying, it's like the tight end saying, I don't need you. I can toss the ball to myself and I got news for you. There's certain patterns and plays we can't run without a tight end. And we need both guards, and we need a quarterback, and we need a coach, and we need a manager. We need everybody. The church can't be the church full participation. And when that happens, that's when those imaginary things that I described, they're not imaginary. They're not imaginary.

Are you ready? I know this will come as a shock. You're going to die. And there's going to be people at your house or near your house, eating those little munchy little sandwiches. And they're going to talk about you. And I don't know about you, but I want them to say by the grace of God. You know what? He was one of the most loving people I ever met. Oh man, I mean, he had his idiosyncrasies and they laugh about those. But full of integrity. Christlike. Cared about people. Generous. Loving. Authentic.

That's not going to happen by trying hard and coming and sitting in this building to be a good person. That's going to happen when you understand who you are in Christ. When you understand the power is in Christ's resurrection for you and with you to walk in newness of life. And when you allow leaders to equip you, and when you minister, and ministries are birthed along your gifts and passions. And you know the word. And you speak the truth in love. And you are connected. And God produces it.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and a message titled, How to Become the Person You've Always Longed to Be, from Chip's series called Free at Last, How to Break Out of a Destructive Lifestyle. Well, there's more from Chip coming up in a moment. Every message in this series is also available anytime on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe so you can listen wherever you go. And for Chip's complete unedited sermon, look for the Chip Ingram sermon podcast.

Something powerful we heard today, you don't need a title or a platform to be a minister of the gospel. Wherever you spend your days, your home, your job, your neighborhood, you're already deputized. Chip's book, Yes, You Really Can Change, is written for exactly this moment. When you know God wants to use you, but you're not sure how the change actually happens. And because today's message was all about equipping others, right now, every order comes with a second copy included, so you can pass one along to someone you're investing in. Get your copy and one to share at livingontheedge.org/offers. As a listener-supported ministry, Living on the Edge continues, thanks to the generosity of people like you. Every dollar you give helps put a message like today's into the hands of someone who needed to hear it. You can give right now at livingontheedge.org, or by phone at 888-333-6003. Prefer to mail a check? Here's the address. Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Suwanee, Georgia, 30024. Well, now back to Chip for a closing word.

Chip Ingram: As we close today's program, I'd love to have just a very informal conversation with you. So, whatever you're doing, kind of lean back for just a minute and let me just ask you a couple questions that I think may have come to your mind. And if they didn't, if I could be so bold, I think God would want them to come to your mind. And the first question would be, are you using your spiritual gift? And are you using it in your local church? Well, maybe the question we ought to back up before that one is, do you know what your spiritual gift is? And here's my experience. I think most of us as Christians, you know, you read through the New Testament or you hear about spiritual gifts and and maybe some people are um kind of very dramatic about some of the gifts and so I find a lot of Christians are like, I don't even want to go there, the last time I talked about spiritual gifts I got into an argument. And for others it's like, yeah, I think I have some and I've read some and I was in a Bible study once and someone told me it's probably either leadership or mercy or um, you know, maybe it's teaching, but and you know, they give you all like a list of seven or eight and you just realize in your heart of hearts, you don't have a clue.

Here's the thing. God wants you to know your primary spiritual gift. He wants you to use it, and when you use it, supernatural things happen in the lives of other people and joy happens inside of you because he's deposited this gift in you to remind you of Christ's work and Christ's victory, but also to give you literally a supernatural ability to love and help other people.

Guest (Male): Coming up in our next lesson, Chip Ingram uses a surprising picture from nature to explain exactly what happens when someone becomes a new creation in Christ. Discover why an unchanged life is actually incompatible with real faith and what it means to genuinely become someone new. Next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.