Yes! You Really CAN Change - Where Do We Get the Power to Change?, Part 1

Are you on the Christian treadmill? You know that one. Try hard, do good, fail. Try hard, do good, fail. Read the Bible more. Try and pray more. Go to church more.

Fail. You know, if you're sick of that life and finding that it simply isn't the abundant life promise with joy and life and peace and power, then today is the day for you. I have been there.

I have done that. And we as believers don't have to live there. Stay with me and we'll learn from God's Word how to break out of the Christian treadmill syndrome. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Gruy, and I'm sure many of you were nodding along in agreement with Chip's analogy. Whether you're trying to stop a bad habit or establish a more meaningful one, life change is difficult. We're in the middle of Chip's series, Yes, You Really Can Change. The last couple of programs, Chip's focused on the common obstacles that stand in the way of true life change. But in this program, we're going to learn about the supernatural source that empowers us toward that kind of transformation.

If you've missed any part of this series, you can always catch up on the Chip Ingram app. Okay, here's Chip now with his message, Where Do We Get the Power to Change? from Ephesians chapter four.

Where do you get the power to change? Dan came up to me the very first time I ever publicly taught through Ephesians four, one through six that we covered last week. I literally got done. A guy walks up to me. He was a young, zealous guy, played for a local college basketball team and we'd gotten to know one another. And I mean, he was living the life. His life was dramatically changing. And I literally got done and he caught me just as I was going around the corner and he stops and goes, stop.

So I did. And he opens his Bible and he opens it up right here to Romans chapter six. He goes, listen to this. He says, but thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed this form of teaching in which you were entrusted. You've been set free from sin and have become a slave to righteousness. And this big six four guard looked at me and goes, it's not true.

It doesn't work. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, a lot, a lot's changed in my life, but I've been, there's some areas and he was very specific. He said, I can't change. I'm supposed to be transformed and I can't.

What's wrong with me? We had a little discussion and literally, this is one of those bizarre experiences. I leave that, walk on around, get a cup of coffee between the services and a young mom that I'd gotten to know pretty well who came from a horrendous background, drug, alcohol addictions, fractured relationships, difficult home life had come to Christ, amazing transformation in the last couple of years. And she walks up to me with an open Bible, Romans chapter six.

I'm thinking there's something going on here. And she goes, she goes to a different verse. She goes, look, look right here.

Verse 22, it says, but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap is holiness and it results in eternal life. And she goes, this isn't working. I'm thinking, I guess I really had a bad day on this one. And I said, well, what do you mean?

She goes, well, I'm not on alcohol. God's really changed my life, but I smoked dope every day, every single day. And I'm concerned about my four year old daughter and I've tried to quit and I prayed to quit and I want to quit and I can't quit. Where do you get the power to change?

That's what we're going to talk about today. Listen to the apostle Paul, interestingly in the very next chapter after chapter six, he says, for I desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not good. The evil that I don't want to do, this I keep on doing.

I mean, he's basically saying, I want to do what's right. I find myself not doing it. And the very thing I don't want to do, I find myself doing that. Anybody in this room having that struggle at all?

Yeah, same here. Chapters one, two and three of the book of Ephesians. This is what God has done for you. Chapter four opens up and this is the practice. I urge you, therefore, Paul says as a prisoner of the Lord, to walk in a manner worthy of your new life. And then he said the way you walk in this new life, the way that your belief and behavior tell the same story is the cocoon, if you will, of community. He says be humble and gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the body and the bond of peace. And then he gives us the reason and he went through those amazing high things.

There's one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And so just by way of review, and then I thought I would just sort of poke at you and poke at me, I thought since I wasn't completely humble and gentle and patient and bearing with other people this week, I thought I would put down the opposite of those. And if I'm not humble, it means I'm proud and selfish. And if I'm not gentle, it means I'm demanding and harsh. If I'm not patient, it means I'm impatient and angry. If I don't bear with people, it means I'm kind of critical of them, especially those that live inside my house and judgmental. If I'm not making every effort, I'm kind of slothful and actually I disengage instead of be connected to people. Is there anybody other than me that had some of the experiences on the right side of that column?

Yeah. Now listen, here's what I want you to understand. Christ comes into our life.

His game plan is to turn us from a green caterpillar and be metamorphosized. Remember, a walk is a process into the transformation of a beautiful butterfly in terms of our character and likeness of Christ. But listen to what the apostle Paul, he goes on to say, he says, Now, if I do what I do not want to do, he identifies the problem. It's no longer I who do it, but it's sin living in me that does it. What a wretched man that I am.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? And then he gives us the answer. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so the question is, how did Jesus conquer sin and how does that work practically in everyday life? The apostle Paul says it's going to be a struggle. In Romans Chapter six, he's going to give us some truth.

We'll look at a little bit later about what's actually true of this. But how do you overcome the struggle with sin? I mean, what did I say to those two people? What did the conversation go like?

And just before we go too far, let me give you a private moment that you don't have to share with anyone. If there is an area in your life that you would say real honestly, you really want to change. You have the desire to change.

You know God wants it to change, but you feel stuck. What's it with you? Is it a critical attitude? Is it your addiction to work or media?

Is it some addiction? Is it, you know, you fill that in because here's what I want you to get. This isn't theoretical. God has given us all the power we need to change. But until we understand what happened to Jesus, are you ready for this? From the time on Friday night when he died to the time on Sunday morning when he rose from the dead, if you don't understand what he did, you'll never understand how to access the power to change. Because what is true in all the New Testament teaching is that what is ever true of Jesus, when you are united to him by faith, you are co-crucified and co-resurrected.

And so whatever is true of him becomes true of us. And the Christian life isn't trying hard to live like Jesus or achieve some morality. The Christian life is a relationship with God the Father through the work of the cross as the Spirit enters your life and you live this new life. Remember, I am crucified with Christ nevertheless in this human body I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me and this new life I live, how do we live it? By faith in the Son of God.

Out of what? Who loved me and gave himself for me. Now verse 7 through 10 of Ephesians 4 will explain how it happens. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. You might circle the little phrase grace given, it means an endowment.

It's not the same word as a spiritual gift, it's the idea of a sacred trust or an endowment, something, a treasure that's being given to you. And therefore it says he reaches back and quotes Psalm 68, 18, he makes some small modifications, but he says when he, speaking of Jesus ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Underline he gave gifts to men because right after this he's going to explain the gifts, we'll talk about the gifts and how spiritual gifts really interact to help us be conformed to the image of Christ. And then now he explains, now this expression he ascended, what does it mean except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens, and here's a purpose clause, so that he might fill all things. Now I don't know about you, I didn't grow up reading the Bible, I never opened the New Testament until I was 18, as a brand new Christian, the big thick part, the Old Testament, I didn't touch that for about a year, I couldn't understand it, but even when I started reading through the New Testament two or three times and then I began reading through the Bible, I remember the first time reading this and thinking I bet this is really important, but I don't have a clue of what there's, what's it mean he ascended, he descended lower parts of the earth, captives, does any of that make sense to you? Now for some of you it may, but here's what I want you to get, it tells us Jesus' identity and it tells us what he did on our behalf in such a way that if you get it like the Ephesians got it, it'll help you understand how to grasp the power to really change. These key words, he led captive a host of captives, right above that I want you to write victorious savior, these key words are gonna tell us Jesus' identity and what he actually did, the next key phrase is lower parts of the earth, above that write the word righteous judge, the last phrase is that he might fill all things, above that write Lord of lords and King of kings and what you're gonna see is the Apostle Paul would take some different pieces and pull them all together and he's going to describe for you and me what Jesus accomplished and whatever he accomplished that's true of him becomes true of us.

Phrase number one, he led captive a host of captives, this imagery is from the Old Testament but was still true in many in the Roman world, here's the picture, you go to battle against your foes, maybe they're in a large city, you surround the city, you build ramparts, you may cut off the water, cut off the food, it may take months or even years in some of those battles and then you defeat your enemy and once you defeat your enemy in those days, you would often deport them to other places and when you would defeat your enemy, you would come back to your hometown and celebrate the victory, often the general or the king would be on a white horse, behind him would be all of his army, often in their best battle array, behind them would be the captives that are described here and they would chain them three, five, seven across and they would be stripped to the waist or sometimes it gets a little graphic, they would strip them naked and then behind them would be what's called the spoils, there might be all the cattle, all the donkeys, all the gold, all the silver, all the jewelries, so this is a procession or a train and so imagine this general coming back into his hometown, people cheering, he's on a white horse, he's demonstrating we've won the victory, here's who won the victory, the soldiers, behind them here's our humiliated defeated foe and behind them the evidence of the great victory are the spoils, gold, silver, animals and so the people would cheer, the military would get much of the spoils but then the spoils or the gifts as an evidence of the victory would be given to some of the people in the town, so if I was a lady cheering, I might get a cow or I might get a bracelet and so I would get these gifts but these gifts are an indication of a victory that's been won and a foe that has been defeated and Paul uses this imagery as Jesus as the victorious victor over sin, over death and over Satan and he's going to talk in a minute about the captives, who he's overcome and what he's done in giving us gifts or spiritual gifts are the evidence of that victory. The next key word is he's the righteous judge, it says the lower parts of the earth, now if you're familiar with the New Testament and some are and some aren't, let me encourage you later today to just read Luke chapter 16 beginning at about verse 19 and Jesus tells a parable and the story of the parable is pretty simple but it gives us a picture of the Jewish view of what happened to people when they died in the Old Testament economy and he tells the story of a righteous beggar named Lazarus and a wicked man who was absolutely selfish and uncaring, they both die and they go into Sheol, the place of the dead and there's two compartments, there's paradise, the abode of the righteous and then there's Hades or hell which is the abode of the wicked. And so you have this picture of Lazarus is with Abraham's bosom in paradise and this wicked man looks and there's a great chasm and he asks please tell him to bring, I'm tortured with this, some water for me and he says there's no way that you can go from one place to the other, it's fixed and he says well then tell my five brothers and the response is even if someone was raised from the dead, your brothers wouldn't believe, they have Moses and the prophets.

But the picture I want you to get is there's this reality of a Jewish Old Testament picture of what was going on when people die. The lower parts of the earth then, here's what happens, when Jesus went into the lower parts of the earth, he made a proclamation and an announcement. He proclaimed a victory's been won to the abode of the wicked and then he proclaimed the good news that the Savior, the Messiah is going to do what?

All that you hope for and all the animal sacrifices, all that you believed of God, all the promises of God, they're finished, it's been won, the Messiah has come. Follow along if you will, Hades, this is what it says in 1 Peter 3, 18 and 19, for Christ died once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, why? To bring us to God, he was put to death in the body but made alive by the spirit through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. Important, the word preached here is not the same word we'll see in just a minute.

This is a word for a pronouncement of judgment. The lower parts of paradise, 1 Peter 4, 6, for this reason the gospel was preached, different word, even to those who are now dead so that they might be judged according to men with regard to the body but live according to God with regard to the spirit. Now let me ask you to do something if you will, open your Bibles to John chapter 5, some of you are looking at me like this is really weird, okay, I get that. What I want you to do is open to John chapter 5 and I want you to listen to what Jesus said would happen.

He's preaching in John chapter 5 beginning at verse 24. Now listen what he says, he's giving this tremendous offer, he says, truly, truly or I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me, notice the tense of the verb, has eternal life. And the result of this present possession of eternal life when you believe or trust in Christ is he will not be condemned but is crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, notice what he says, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. Notice what Jesus' role is, for the father has life in himself and so he's granted the son to have life in himself and he has given him authority to what?

To judge because he is the son of man. Notice the very next line, verse 28, do not be amazed at this for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out and those who have done good will rise to live and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. And the apostle Paul is saying in this little picture here, when he went into the lower parts of the earth, Jesus was first the victorious victor over sin and death and Satan, second he went into the lower parts of the earth and he condemned and gave judgment on the wicked and then told those who had been trusting in him, it's over, your faith has been fulfilled. Finally, this last unique phrase that he might fill all things and the idea of fill here is the idea that Jesus is taking back all territory. He's the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. There's victory over sin, there's victory over death, there's victory over Satan. Remember when he's tempted by the devil and the devil said to him, if you will bow down before me, I will give you these kingdoms. Apparently in God's economy, he had responsibility over a certain rain upon the earth because of sin and Jesus avoided that temptation, but now what he does, Colossians 2 says he destroyed the works of the devil and he is now proclaiming he fills all things.

He's the ruler, he's the Lord, he's the King of Kings now in real time. It's a defeated foe. You can look death in the eyes because its sting is gone. Sin's power broken, sin's penalty gone. In fact, we pick up this in Revelation chapter 5. Follow along and listen carefully for the very end.

They sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchase men from God in every tribe and every language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God and they will rain on the earth and then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand and they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders and in a loud voice they said worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the land be praise and honor and glory and power forever. We've taken some very remote pieces and a couple hard passages and the very words of Jesus and we have understood what does it mean that he ascended, that he also descended and that now he is the ruler, the king, the lord of lords. He's a victorious savior and everything that happened with regard to him of conquering sin and death and Satan is now true of you and at the very bottom just so there's not confusion what you need to understand is all saints or all believers we all get saved the same way. If you were an Old Testament saint you believed by faith that there's sacrifices each year in the day of atonement were putting you sort of in hold and one day a savior would come and your sins will be completely forgiven and dealt with so they were looking forward to Christ. We now as New Testament believers or saints we look back on what Christ has done but all believers Old or New Testament we all are saved on the basis of Christ's finished work on the cross by grace through faith. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message where do we get the power to change will be right back with his application on this teaching from his series yes you really can change the point of this series is not only to say that genuine life change is possible but to help us reflect on areas where we struggle maybe you need to break an addiction repair a broken relationship or correct a behavior whatever the issue is you can make the change and we'd love to help you with that process digging deeper into this series would be a great way to start take a look at the study guide stream the small group video or download the free mp3s to listen anytime to place your order or for more details on yes you really can change go to Living on the Edge dot org call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or tap special offers on the chip Ingram app I'll be right back in just a minute to really talk with you specifically about how to put into practice what we have shared in the teaching time but here's what I want you to know I've pastored for well over 30 years and this pattern of try hard do good fail try hard do good fail try hard not do so good and start faking it is literally how a huge portion of genuine sincere followers of Jesus are seeking to live out their life and what I can tell you is trying hard and religious activities do not bring the internal dynamic supernatural change that God wants in your life but what I what I've learned over the years is people don't understand they simply don't understand how life change occurs what the source is what's the role of renewing our minds and what's the role of people in our lives we're teaching through this series right now but let me encourage you I put this in a brand new book called yes you really can change let me encourage you to get the book read through it slowly share it with one other person or maybe two God wants to help you have a breakthrough in your life to experience dynamic genuine change from the heart but it means digging in let me put a book in your hands that will help you do just that well we're pretty excited about the release of the new revised edition of chips book yes you really can change let me encourage you go to our website Living on the Edge org to pick up your copy of yes you really can change pick one up for yourself maybe get one for a friend and spend some time over coffee encouraging one another on your new journey of life change well now here's chip with a final thought someone has rightly said we are what we eat if your mind and heart isn't saturated with the truth you will not change I mean I can't tell you how many people I meet and I love them and God loves them and I'll speak somewhere and they'll come up afterwards and they'll tell me the struggles in their heart and their life or with pornography or in a relationship or with one of their kids or anxiety or depression I mean and then I always ask them tell me a little bit about your daily practice or you know weekly practice of getting into God's Word what are you putting in your mind and what I want you to hear with a heart of compassion is that people who have their minds renewed are making progress and people whose minds are not being renewed aren't making progress it's the key remember what Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will you can fill it in can't you the truth will set you free well you don't need more exhortation let me give you a specific game plan beginning right now today to get into the truth number one I want you to decide for the next seven days what's the best time for you to spend time with God okay have you got it your night person before you go to bed that's kind of iffy there you might fall asleep but if that's your best time do it are you a morning person is it your lunch hour do you have a twenty minute break right now with me decide what's the best time number two where are you going to do it I mean just for seven days I want to get you started now I want you to take one verse something you're hearing on the radio or where you're reading the Bible and I want one verse that really matters to you and I want you to write it on a three by five card today all right I'm not messing around I mean today you write it down and then at the beginning of the day and you carry it with you and maybe at dinner or at some breaks and before you go to bed I want you to read that one verse and ask God to make that one verse real in your life these are just baby steps to get you going third is I want you to decide in your travel time that instead of listening to talk radio or music and on the way to work and on the way back you are going to play Christian biblical teaching to renew your mind these are baby steps to get you going but I'm telling you it will help are you ready let's dig in together you can know the truth and the truth will set you free thanks Chip let me take just a second and thank the generous people who make monthly donations to support the ministry of Living on the Edge your faithful gifts help us inspire Christians to live like Christians every gift makes a huge difference if you haven't partnered with us yet would you prayerfully consider joining the Living on the Edge team make a one-time gift or set up a recurring donation by going to Living on the Edge org or calling us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 our website again is Living on the Edge dot o-r-g and our phone number is triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 and know we're blessed by whatever the Lord leads you to do well until next time this is Dave Drewey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.