Living on the Edge

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, do you remember the first time someone hired you? They looked you in the eye and said, "You're the one we want." There's something powerful and affirming about being called out to be a part of a group. Well, today you're going to learn what it looks like when God says, "I want you. You are called to be on my team." You don't want to miss it.

Chip Ingram: What if the meaninglessness and restlessness you feel isn't a personal failure but a sign that you were made for something far bigger? Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues our series, The New You: Claiming Your Birthright as a Child of God. Chip is taking us through Ephesians chapters two and three to explore five specific concrete ways God has called every one of his children and what they mean for your life today. If you're just joining us, be sure to catch up on what you've missed by going online to livingontheedge.org. We'll now hear Chip with his message, "You are Called."

In our time together, here's what I want to do. I'm going to show you five specific ways that God has called you. Number one, you are called into a new relationship. He chose you before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. You are called not to religion. You didn't get called to morality. You didn't get called to duty. You didn't get called to "I'm supposed to do this and supposed to do that." You were called to a relationship. You were called into a relationship with Jesus. A person. A real person who walked on the earth. A real person who really cares about you and knows you and loves you.

Second, God calls us to a new purpose. He's created you exactly the way he wants you, and he's created you to fulfill something that no one else can do it quite like you because no one else is you. Third, he called you, you'll never have to be alone, into a new family. Follow along as I read this. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, you Gentiles, but you're fellow citizens with God's people. You're members of God's household.

And then notice what he goes on to say. Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone. In him, Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple. What's a temple? What? Why do people go to temples? To worship, to experience God's presence. Jew, Gentile, one new family. In him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives in his spirit.

God's presence dwells in you as a believer individually. But God's manifest presence when we come together, two or more, three or more, he then dwells and manifests his power and his presence. Now, here's what you need to get. Jew and Gentile, because of our cultures most of us don't have a clue. This would be like hundreds and hundreds of years of not "I don't mean they don't like each other," I'm talking hostility. If I was a Jew, I would not walk into the house of a Gentile. If a Gentile drank out of a cup, I would not touch the cup or I wouldn't drink out of it. Jews called Gentiles dogs.

What he's saying is Jesus now has taken all these people from different places and now there's unity in him. This is like someone from Hamas and the head of the Israel state saying, "We are now family." Can you imagine? You're a Roman soldier or you're just a person in Judea or Galilee. And all of a sudden these Christians, these wacko people that say this guy rose from the dead, there's a Jew and a Gentile, a slave and a rich person, a rabbi, and they're walking into a stadium singing.

And that motley group of people that would hate each other apart from Jesus, singing and praising God and asking God to forgive the people that are about to kill them. And God doesn't want you thinking following Christ is coming to weekend services, maybe being in a group, giving a little money, and going your way. He wants you to get connected in community.

He wants you to learn to love and experience the kind of things that people would say, "Gosh, aren't you both from India? But in India these two groups don't get along. How does that happen? Oh, aren't you from Taiwan and you know you're from mainland China and isn't there some rub with some of that stuff? And you know, aren't you black and aren't you white? Are you ready for this? Aren't you a Republican and he's a Democrat? And you pray together and love each other?" I'm not kidding you. I'm talking that's what God wants to do.

Now, you might be thinking, how would that happen? Oh, I'm glad you asked. Because I want you because I don't want you to think, do I really want to change? That's the call of God. He called you to a new purpose, to a relationship, to a new family, and he called you to a new plan. Chapter three opens up and this is very interesting. The apostle Paul basically is explaining to this group of Gentiles, look, you know, don't feel sorry for me. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. But here's what I got to tell you. That's verse one.

And then the next little section is look in your Bibles, look at the word "mystery," "mystery," "mystery." It happens either three or four times. The Greek word doesn't mean it's mysterious; it means something used to be hidden. It used to be a secret, but now it's not a secret anymore. And Paul's saying God had a secret. God had a secret in his eternal plan for all mankind. And the secret is the church.

And the church is Jew and Gentile, all people becoming one new family. And notice that this new family has an agenda. He says he has a plan and this plan has a purpose. Pick it up at verse 10. His intention was now that through the church the manifold mystery of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Now, I know that sounds like sort of religion speak. You know what that's saying? The angels. That's who the rulers and powers are. The angels are in heaven.

And they're like, "Whoa, I mean we've worshiped you, you know, we cover our eyes, you're so holy. So these these people who were angry and they did this and they you you forgave them? You became a man? And then this these two groups have been hating each other, they love each other and then?" Angels don't understand grace. Part of our calling is, are you ready? You want to go, "Ah." Part of our calling is to educate angels. To give them access into a side of the manifold wisdom of our God in his infinite wisdom and grace and power and glory, that this is what his heart is like by how he changes us and by what happens to us together.

And then notice why. Look right in your notes. He says according to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's just amazing. It's just absolutely amazing. It's this new plan. You're a part of an eternal plan of God and you have a unique role. It's to give your life away. The plan is to go into all the world and make disciples. It's Jesus' last words. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them not to highlight their Bible, teach them to obey all the things Jesus says I taught you.

Help them be Christians that live like Christians. And by the way, I'll never leave you. You've got the power. We've got this together. You're it's really hard to be discouraged, depressed and feel like it's meaningless, life makes no sense. Well, no, no, I'm called to be his friend, I'm called to a new purpose, I'm called into a new family and I'm called to be a part of an eternal thing in this tiny thing called time in all of eternity. I am called by his name to be a part of that. Do you want in on that or not?

I do. We got a whole world that looks at their navel. We got a narcissist consumer church. "What did you do for me? It wasn't that interesting. The music went a little bit long. You know, I'm I think the numbers need to be a little bit bigger in the childcare." Help us, Lord. God's calling is so big, so magnificent and so amazing. If you would lean into it and experience it.

I mean, have you ever pondered this? I like to read history and you ever wonder why mega-mega wealthy people, Christian or not, they realize life's got to be more than just making money and wealth and houses and planes and cars? And so whether it was Pulitzer or whether it was Carnegie or whether it was Ford or Gates, I mean when you make billions and billions and billions of dollars and you can do anything, there's a void.

Secular people understand the only thing that delivers any sense of meaning is when your life is about helping someone else or a cause bigger than yourself. And the biggest cause in the world is what? It's the gospel. It's the God who came to the planet and died in the place to pay for all men's sin of all time, who rose from the dead and said, "Here's the plan. Go get them, team. I'm with you." Don't you want to be a part of that? I do.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Stay with us, there's more ahead. We're currently in a series called The New You: Claiming Your Birthright as a Child of God. If you've joined us late or if you want to share any of these messages with a friend or family member, every lesson in this series is available free at livingontheedge.org. You'll also find study resources there to help you go deeper on your own or with a group. That's livingontheedge.org. Well, now back to Chip.

Chip Ingram: Finally, he says God calls us to make our hearts Christ's home. He starts with relationship and then he ends with this amazing, amazing prayer. Pick it up. This one we need to read together. Look at verse 14. He starts, he says, "For this reason." In other words, in all of these callings for this reason, he goes, "I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner man."

In other words, you can't do this, I can't do this. Everything I said I know I can't do. Oh God, will you give me the power, the will, the desire to take these kind of steps in ways. And then notice I put in your notes why. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Put a circle around "dwell" and above it write "be at home." That's what it means. So that Christ could be at home in your heart.

Yes, he's absolutely awesome, transcendent and holy, but he wants to be your friend. To be at home where you're driving the car and you're talking to him. You mess up with one of your kids, "Oh, Lord, I'm sorry," and you make it right. Something comes out of your mouth and he's not down on you, you don't have to, you know, he's at home in your heart. It's why the metaphor the whole Bible you walk with God.

Walk has baby steps. Walk has trips. Walk has some skipping. It's a journey. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, something we already have, may have power. Notice this phrase, together with all the saints. Everything I've described is impossible by yourself. It's not hard; impossible. There was a reason the early church met house to house. See, there's times where I thought, "Oh, God, I want you to hug me. God, I want you to answer prayer. God, I want you to give me wisdom. God, I want you to provide for me."

Guess what? By and large apart from some very, very unique supernatural times, guess what? He hugs you through another Christian. He provides for you through the time, the energy, the gifts and the money of someone who goes, "Oh, wow, I just I just was with a guy two days ago and there's these orphans in Zimbabwe and there's people on the streets." And he just said, "You know, God gave me this money. God's going to provide through me."

The way that he gives you wisdom, it's a conversation in a group and you're having a struggle in a marriage and guess what? Everyone has those, but someone in your group goes, "You know, about seven years ago that was our issue. You want to get coffee after this group maybe sometime this week?" And pretty soon someone talks to you and God gives you wisdom and all of a sudden, wow. Now, it gets even better because everyone here's been through some stuff. You get coffee with someone and you're sharing something and they go, "Really?"

And you're thinking, "I'm just a regular person. That wasn't that profound." But you made it. God spoke. He grew you. See, that's the plan. His dwelling together. And then notice that we would know the love that surpasses knowledge. Not just intellect. That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

He starts with we're called into a relationship and here's the end. We all have these holes and we fill them with stuff. We're like this container and you know I fill it with work or fill it with TV or fill it with NFL or fill it with food or fill it with something or fill it with the third or fourth glass of wine. We all got to do all this stuff. And he goes, "Let me let you gaze down into your soul and if you could see yourself the way I see you and then whoosh, I'm going to fill you with my love. I'm going to fill you with my love. I'm going to fill you with my love to all the fullness of God."

So all those things that you tried to fill in will just be like, "Eh, I don't need that stuff." But it's a journey and it's a process. Can I ask you a really personal question even though there's a lot of you and just one of me? Do you want that? You can listen to it, you can be inspired. I mean, it's amazing. Now, is that like pondering and reflecting on the magnitude of your calling?

But is that just like, oh, okay, you know, "Hey, way to go, Chip. I think you had a good one." Or is that, "Okay, God, I think I need to have a good one." I have four questions to help you take the next steps. Question number one, if you really want to get rid of the angst, the struggles in your life in these areas, have you responded to Jesus calling you to himself? Realize I need Christ. I have sinned. I'm not who I need to be. Please forgive me. And in the empty hands of faith, come into my heart, Lord Jesus.

Second, have you discovered Jesus' purpose for your life? We have a course on the website called Your Divine Design that would help you. Third, are you an active connected member of Jesus' family? Connected. Are you connected? Do you have real community? And fourth, are you actively a part of God's plan to reach, teach and serve others?

Churches have helped people come to believe either explicitly or implicitly that being a follower of Christ is coming into a big room, hearing someone that is at least fairly interesting, having good music, your kids taken care of and checking a box going, "That's what a follower of Christ is." It's called consumerism. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But we've created that.

If you're not teaching, serving, caring, giving your life away, you're not experiencing the Christian life. And there's these pieces of the puzzle that are not there. See, are you ready for this? You are. Now, this is not theologically correct, but this is practically correct. You are indispensable for God's ideal. Now, you know what? You can not do your thing and you think God's going to hold up his whole plan because you and I don't do what we're supposed to do? No. But you're indispensable to this body. Indispensable. Significant. Needed.

Read the truth slowly, profoundly, with a sense of God called my name. My life has an eternal purpose to fulfill. Is that awesome? I have been created, equipped and called by God in this moment of history to fulfill a unique role in his body that will demonstrate his mercy, love, diversity and unity to the world. Whoa. That's why I'm pursuing my holy ambition. I love what I'm doing. But I only get to live in this tiny thing and here's eternity. I have to, like you have to, do whatever God calls you to do to make the greatest impact and the deepest impact on the most people with whatever he's given you.

And the reward will be beyond our wildest dreams both now and forever. Lord, will you please, please open our minds and enlighten our hearts. Lord, I ask you for those that are sitting in this room or watching or listening and they have never crossed the line. They've never confessed to you that they need you, that they're not perfect, that they've done things wrong. Lord, I ask that they could in this moment in their own words say, "Oh God, I'm sorry. Will you please forgive me based solely on Jesus' work on the cross and his resurrection? And will you come into my life? Would you help me understand what it means to be your daughter, your son?"

And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters that they've crossed that line and you so long for them to see themselves the way you do and they just need to take the next step. I want to give you just a minute as we close to just say to the Lord, "Call my name." Lord, would you call my name afresh? Call me. Show me what part of this, whether it's friendship, whether it's community, whether it's family, whether it's purpose, would you just call my name and help me take just the next step? And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge and a message titled "You are Called." For over 30 years this ministry has existed for one reason: to help Christians actually live like Christians. Not just believe the right things but let those things reshape the way you think, the way you treat people, the way you show up at work and at home. That's what today was about and that's what this series is about.

If you want to keep going deeper, Chip's brand new devotional, Growing Deeper in Christ: A 365-Day Journey to True Discipleship, is the perfect companion. 365 days. One truth per day, one simple step of obedience. It's not about reading faster or doing more; it's about letting the Word do what only the Word can do over time, consistently in the ordinary moments of your day.

When you sign up as a monthly partner, we'll send you a copy as our thank you. Monthly partners are the backbone of this ministry. Your consistent giving is what keeps this teaching on the air and reaching people who need it. Join us today at livingontheedge.org. You can also call us by dialing 888-333-6003. Or if you'd simply like to purchase the devotional or pass one along to someone you love, you can do that too. Again, just go to livingontheedge.org or write to us at Living on the Edge, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30324. And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. It's a great way to stay connected between broadcasts and share what God is teaching you. Well, now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: As we wrap up today's program, I want you to lean back because this is very important and let me ask you some of those vital questions that I ended this message with that remove the angst in our life. And there's a lot of angst out there. And yet God says that we're competent, valuable, we're significant, we're secure. So here's the questions. Have you responded to Jesus' calling? Are you a believer? You've been listening, you've been tracking. Have you crossed the line and asked him to forgive you for your sins?

Or as a believer, have you surrendered? That's a separate step. Have you told him, "I'm all in. I really want to walk with you. I'm going to obey no matter what"? Second, have you discovered Jesus' purpose for your life? I mean, he's made you special and the greatest joys and the greatest impact are going to come as you discover that purpose and then fulfill it.

Third, are you an active and connected member of the family of God? You know, we kind of live in a day where "I read the Bible and I'm spiritual and I'm kind of doing my own thing." You are a vital part of a thing called the body of Christ. There is this huge building, temple, puzzle, body. Choose the metaphor and we need you and you need us.

That means you don't do it on your own; you're actually connected in real relationships where they know you, your joys, your challenges and your hurts and they have the freedom to encourage and to speak into your life. That's a part of what it means to be a follower in community. And fourth, are you actively a part of God's plan to reach and teach and to serve others?

You know, it's so easy when we talk about, "Oh, I want to discover these things about myself," or "I took this personality test" or "this is my number on the Enneagram." And yet we can get so consumed with "me, me, me and this is what I'm like and this is what will make me happy." And all of that focus completely misses the purpose for why you are in Christ and why you are called. You are called first and foremost to the Savior of the world because he loves you and wants an intimate relationship with you.

And second, he has gifted you, prepared you and prepared a purpose for you to make a difference. And so those lies like "I'm not wanted and I'm not needed by anyone and my life has no purpose or meaning and I'm a victim and everything's unfair" is a lie. Stop it. The truth is my life and your life has eternal purpose to fulfill. We've been created, equipped and called by God in this moment of history to fulfill a unique purpose that only we can. And as you look around the world, as I look around the world, has there ever been a time that you can remember where we need to step out and be followers of Christ not just in word but in deed? To love our neighbor as ourselves, to care for one another, to model what it means to be light and salt. To be the Jesus in all this stuff that's happening in our world today. You matter to God and he wants to use you like never before.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey. Coming up next, Chip Ingram asks a powerful question. If your worth isn't found in your performance, where does it come from? You'll want to hear the answer. That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.