Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram: You may not believe it, but you are God's masterpiece in the making. God wants to do an extreme makeover—not on your house, but in your life. You have been created, literally recreated, in Christ Jesus for a special, supernatural, amazing good work that produces joy and peace and purpose like never before. Where does it happen? How does it happen? Stay with me.

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram shows us the stunning before and after portrait of a life in Christ from Ephesians 2: dead to alive, prisoner to free. In doing so, he's addressing some key questions that every believer eventually has to face: Where does God do His transforming work, and how? The answers are more specific and more surprising than most people expect. So if you have your Bible with you, open to Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse 18. Now here's Chip Ingram with his message titled, "You're a Masterpiece in the Making."

Chip Ingram: God's desire is to do an extreme makeover for every single person on this planet. An extreme makeover: He wants to take the old and put it away, and He wants to put your past behind you. God wants to do an extreme makeover in your life and mine, and the way He does it is through His Son, Jesus. Now, what I want to do is talk about where God does this.

It's going to happen—notice in chapter two, pick it up at verse 18 with me: "For through Him, Christ, we both," he's talking about Jews and Gentiles, "have access to the Father by the one Spirit." Then verse 19: "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people." Now follow along carefully: "and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him, Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit."

Notice the word "God's household" at the end of verse 19. Notice as you come down, you are a "building." Notice it's a "holy temple." Notice you are "being built." Notice "becoming a dwelling." There is a special place where God does spiritual makeovers, but it is not a magic closet. It is a house. It is a special house. It is a holy temple. It is a supernatural community. And you know what we call this house today? It's called the church.

Now, don't get in your mind, "Oh, the church building." Don't think in your mind institutional religion. I'm talking about the living, breathing, called-out people of God who are living in community, who are walking authentically, who are living out significantly in purity, doing life together in the power of the Spirit, based on the Word of God. In that supernatural community, that is where extreme makeovers happen.

Then skip down to chapter three, and he's going to give us the purpose. Verse 10, chapter three: "His intent," he's been talking about the church, "was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose, which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him, and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence."

Did you get that? His intent was now through the church to express or demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God so that angels and principalities and powers and all things of all the universe would step back and see this thing called the church. And what they would really see is, "Oh my. Whoa. God is great."

You know what God wants? The purpose behind extreme makeovers: God wants the principalities and the powers and the people of all times and all eons to go, "God, that is You. I thought so small. You're so much bigger. You're so much more wonderful. You're so much more powerful. You're so much more gracious than I ever dreamed." How do I know? Because I see what You do in Your church.

How does it work? How does it work? Notice, that's the corporate side of it. Notice the internal side. Skip down and the apostle Paul prays where it really works. He says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family," verse 14 of chapter three, "from the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. And I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power," where? "Through His Spirit in the inner being" or the inner man.

Purpose, verse 17: "So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God." Where does God do extreme makeovers? Two places. One, He does it in a house, and the house is this church that's being built up. The second place He does it is in the heart.

He does it in the inner man of every woman, every man who allows the Spirit of God to have His way. And the reason He does it is what? To demonstrate to the world His manifold wisdom. Let me give you another humorous picture if I can. The story is of a fellow who lived way, way, way back in the hollers. He decided that since his son was about 14 or 15, he needed to see a city.

Him and Ma had never been there. He was kind of mid-60s and never been to a dentist, so he was missing most of his front teeth. Ma kind of looked like Pa, and she wasn't on a regular exercise program. It's not like she was health-food conscious. Actually, they didn't have a TV, didn't have a radio, and they had this old truck. If you can imagine the Beverly Hillbillies, open wide in the back with all their stuff. They're going to town.

So they get to town. It's a big city, and there's a big skyscraper. As they go through town, they are just shocked. "Dad, look at that! Wow, look at that!" I mean, their eyes are big. Finally, he wants to open a bank account. There's a bank in this big, high-tower area, all glass. He looks up and can't believe what it's like. He says, "Ma, you stay here. Son, you come with me."

He's got his overalls on, the straps over. He's barefooted, and they walk in together. Everyone looks at them. He stops, and as he walks in, there's a chain of elevators, bright and shiny. They're looking for where the bank is, and the elevators are over there. Pretty soon he sees a lady who really had some arthritis. She had one of those canes with the four prongs.

She was humped over a little bit, and the doors opened. Then she got in, and the doors closed. They watched all these lights go off. In about 20 seconds after all the lights, the doors opened, and this gorgeous, unbelievable, knockout blonde walks out. He looks to his son and says, "I believe there is a magic box in this place." And then he said to his son, "Go get Ma."

You know something? That's what God wants to do. It doesn't happen in a magic box. It doesn't happen overnight. There is a clear process, but the dramatic nature of the change, the extreme makeover God wants to do in you and in every person through a relationship with Christ—that's what He wants to do. And where He does it is in this thing called the household of God, the church.

How He does it individually is in the human heart of people. He works in your human heart in the household of the church. But if you've ever seen a person paint or if you've ever seen a sculptor doing a masterpiece, because you're a masterpiece, there's got to be tools, right? I mean, I don't think God is finger painting. I think He has multiple brushes.

When God is sculpting, I think He has multiple tools to put lines in, to create in you. See, your DNA, both spiritually and physically, is different than anyone else's. Why? Because He has a purpose for you. He has a goal for you. He has a target for you. He has loved you, saved you, and purposed you. There are some good works that you're going to walk in. There's a unique calling He has for your life that you're going to accomplish something in the scheme of God that no one else can.

It doesn't have to be highly visible. You don't have to be famous. You don't have to get up in front of people. You need to do the good works that He preordained or prepared in advance for you. Now here's the question: We found out where it occurs, the church and in the human heart. Now, what I want to ask and answer is how. How does God specifically do these spiritual makeovers? Because I don't know about you, but I want in on this, and I want as much of it as I can get.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our message in just a moment. We're in the middle of Chip's series, "You Were Made for More: How to Discover God's Purpose for Your Life." If you'd like to catch up on any programs you've missed or share a message with someone who needs to hear it, every program is available free at livingontheedge.org. You'll also find study resources and bonus content from Chip. That's livingontheedge.org. Now, back to Chip.

Chip Ingram: What we're going to talk about is how to discover, how to develop, and how to deploy your spiritual gifts. If you're thinking, "Buddy, you took us through almost the entire book of Ephesians to get there," I'm going to tell you why. When we talk about spiritual gifts in the church, I hear people talk about it like they're going to a salad bar. "There's a salad bar of spiritual gifts. What's yours? I don't know, Fred. What's yours? How about you, Ethel? Do you know what yours is?"

It's kind of like kids in a candy shop. "It might be this, it might be that. Why don't we take this little test and find out?" We've separated it from the theology. I'll tell you, if I would ask most people in here, because I've done a lot of surveys, "What is your primary spiritual gift? You know exactly what it is before God." Very few people raise their hand. "What are your secondary spiritual gifts? How do you live them out? How much do you know about spiritual gifts? How much do spiritual gifts tell you what to do, what not to do?"

We all say there are so many demands. What should I do? Tell you what, God has given you spiritual gifts. He's made you a tool. I've tried hammering with a screwdriver; it is not very effective. He's made you a tool. He wants screwdrivers to do spiritually screws. He wants hammers to pound nails. He wants levels to level things.

Because you don't know your spiritual gifts, because you don't know how to discover them, you don't know how to deploy them, you don't know when to say yes or when to say no. We get Christians everywhere basically out of guilt, manipulation—sadly to say as a fellow pastor, I've done that a couple times—we've got to fill that slot.

We have people out of their giftedness, not understanding their gifts, and therefore not being used by God. Even worse, you don't experience the joy that God intended for you, the good works that you're to walk in. So many Christians are walking in someone else's good works. There are certain things I know that are good, and I see people that are passionate and they're great at it. I'm just not good at it.

When I try to do it—now, out of service, you've got to do whatever you're supposed to do. I'm not saying that you only do things that are in your gifts. But what I'm saying is the prime majority of your energy and focus and time needs to go in what God made you to do. In this passage, he makes it clear: How does God do extreme makeovers? Christ gave spiritual gifts.

He gave spiritual gifts, how? By the ascended Christ to every believer for the profit of others through the Holy Spirit's sovereignty. He gave me my gift, He gave you your gift sovereignly. He chose. You study this carefully, you realize with a great deliberate thought of the will—there are two or three words in the New Testament for the idea of God's will and God's intention. When it talks about spiritual gifts, it's with deliberation. It's with thought.

He gave you the spiritual gift that will equip you to walk in the good works and the purposes you're supposed to fulfill. So He's done it by the ascended Christ to every believer for the profit of others through the Holy Spirit sovereignly. When? At the time of salvation on the basis of grace. You didn't earn it. This whole thing about, "Oh, this person has this gift and that person has..." You know what? It's free.

I'm not going to compare mine with yours. You have what God gave you. What I have, it was free. It was grace. What you have, it's free. It's grace. Why? Because there are works that God wants me to walk in. There are good works that I've been called and preordained, God prepared in advance that I should do and that you should do.

But my testimony is, I did a lot of "Christian things" and things in general. My joy factor never skyrocketed and the impact of my life for the kingdom of God never took off until I got clear: This is my primary spiritual gift. Here are my secondary gifts, ministry gifts God gives around that. I'm going to focus my life, my time, my energy around those.

When I did that and said no to other stuff, I saw God begin to use my life in ways I never dreamed. Not because I'm special, it's because that's the paintbrush He put inside of me to do what? Take the palette of truth and colors in His Word to recreate in people's hearts and people's lives. Notice the final thing here: It produces the life of Christ in every believer.

That's the goal. The gifts in you, the gifts in me, in community around God's Word, is going to produce the life of Jesus in every believer. Isn't that the extreme makeover? Isn't God's plan, if you wanted to reduce it to that silly story, that we're outside the elevator, that we've been living in the hills in ignorance and we just didn't really know any better and often willful rebellions or passive indifference?

We come to a relationship with Christ and it really is like the magic box. You come into this new relationship, but it's not an elevator. It's the body of Christ. The moment you walk in, the Spirit of God comes into your life and you're with other people and they have gifts and you have gifts. Their gifts are the paintbrushes and the tools that take the Word of God and the truth of God and the love of God to show me the kindness of Christ.

That's how my life changes. Do you know your spiritual gift? Your primary one. Are you using your spiritual gift? How much do you know about spiritual gifts? Or is it just this little thing over on the side and we try and teach people just enough so we can get them connected so they can fill some of the slots in the programs of our church?

I've spent a whole session giving you a theology of what God wants to do in your life. He is in the extreme makeover business. He doesn't want a little makeover in you; He wants an extreme makeover. If you don't get it, you're going to miss everything. The tool God uses, the tools God uses in this household, this place called the church, in your human heart that He wants to transform you and others, the tool He uses is your spiritual gift, functioning in submission to the Holy Spirit in the community of God's people according to God's Word.

He wants to use you as a paintbrush and as one of those little tools that shapes the clay. He wants to use you to write His new life, the new novel that He's building in the lives of other people as you walk in the good deeds He's prepared for you. Now, what I knew is I was going to bring you right to the point where you were going to say to yourself, "I hope you know what. I really need to know a lot more about spiritual gifts than I do. And I need to discover the one that I have, and I better figure out how to develop it." When we get together next time, what we're going to do—I mean, we are going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to learn to discover your spiritual gift. We're going to learn how they fit together and how they work, and then we're going to learn how to deploy your spiritual gift. My prayer for you is that you'll learn to walk in the good works that God prepared for you in advance.

Dave Druey: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and a message titled, "You're a Masterpiece in the Making." Think about what Chip unpacked from Ephesians 3 today: God's actual stated intent is that through the church, His manifold wisdom would be made known to every ruler and authority in the heavenly realms. That means when believers with different gifts live authentically together around God's Word, the entire universe is watching something extraordinary unfold.

You are part of something that big. And the tool God gives you to play your specific part? A spiritual gift. Sovereignly chosen, grace-given, not to compare with others, but to discover and deploy. If you want to take your next step in discovering what God made you for, try The Real You, a free online assessment we've made available at therealyou.org.

It's a biblically grounded tool that helps you understand how God has uniquely wired you—your personality, your strengths, your spiritual design. Take it free at therealyou.org. And if Living on the Edge has been part of your own story, if God has used this ministry to meet you, speak to you, or move you, we invite you to step up and give today. Your support is what keeps this gospel work going. Give online at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. You can also mail your gift to Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30324. By the way, to make sure you don't miss any of Chip's daily broadcasts Monday through Friday, be sure to subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast wherever you listen. Now, here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: God is in the process of revolutionizing our lives from the inside out. I call it an extreme makeover. Like any good builder, He uses tools. The primary tool we talked about is, along with the Spirit of God living in you and the Word of God living in community, He uses spiritual gifts.

What I've experienced is most Christians do not know their spiritual gift or, if they do, they know it with sort of a salad bar mentality that makes no difference in their lives. You say, "What's your spiritual gift?" and they rattle off five or six or seven. You say, "Well, how does that give you direction in your life?" and they look at you like, "Well, I probably ought to do something sort of somehow in those areas."

So we're going to help you in the next few weeks really discover your spiritual gift. But I want to tell you how discovering my spiritual gift has been a key to the makeover in my life. Four things have happened in my life. Number one, when I discovered my spiritual gift, I began to live with the reality that it reminded me it's the spoils—that I'm a victor. I may feel bad, I may feel lonely, I may feel defeated, I may mess up, but that spiritual gift reminds me that I got it from the ascended Christ and that I'm a victor. It's the spoils of His victory over death and sin.

Second, it really helped me grasp God's love. That spiritual gift, when I exercise a gift of teaching or preaching or exhortation, it reminds me that I didn't have that. That God loves me so much, He gave me that gift to be a part of what He was doing.

Third, it really helped me discover God's plan for my life. I was going a whole different direction, and when I learned my spiritual gifts and over and over people said, "Chip, this is when God uses you," it gave me alignment for what to do. Not only early in my life, but literally in the last four to five years, I made big decisions about getting closer and closer to more of my time going at the heart of the spiritual gift that God's given me.

And then finally, it's given me a sense of destiny. God's doing something on this planet, His purposes are great, and I'm a part of it because He put a tool in my hand to be a part of help shape other believers in the body of Christ. My prayer is that God will do a radical, continued spiritual makeover in your life and you'll discover the spiritual tool that He's given you. Now go for it.

Dave Druey: Well, that's all our time for today. I'm Dave Druey, inviting you back next time when Chip continues our series, "You Were Made for More." Here on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.