Yes! You Really CAN Change - How to Become the Person You've Always Longed to Be, Part 2

You know, in our day we hear a lot of people talk about spiritual maturity. 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 four-fold criteria for measuring your spiritual growth and how you can become the person you've always wanted to become. Stay with us. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Pastor Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Drew. We're in the middle of Chip's series, Yes You Really Can Change, focusing on genuine life transformation. After the teaching, Chip will share some extra insight into what he's learned in this area, so be sure to stick around for that. This message builds on several points he made last time, so I encourage you to get Chip's message notes before we get started. They're a quick download at livingontheedge.org.

Under the broadcasts tab, app listeners just tap fill in notes. Now here's Chip with part two of his message, How to Become the Person You've Always Longed to Be, from Ephesians chapter four. My first two or three years as a pastor, that's all I knew.

That's what I did. I worked 80, 85 hours a week. I grew this magnificent church from 35 to almost 100 people and just about landed in the hospital. I mean, my wife typed the bulletin. We did the mimeograph. My kids helped me cut the grass. I cleaned the toilets. I did all the counseling. I did all the preaching. I actually even helped lead the music, which was scary. And then this passage became a reality and we flipped everything around in that church and we helped everyone discover what God made them to do and we moved the pastoral care from a person to a system, a whole group, the way Jesus did. And they started loving one another and in that little town of about 3,000 people, pretty soon we had about 500 people and pretty soon we were connecting with the black church in town and the Hispanic kids and ministries were being launched by people because I finally got my job was to help. Leaders equip.

They drive the car forward. They help people like you, all of us regular people, to discover how God's made us grow to maturity, use our gifts so that, notice the second principle. Second principles are every member is a minister. Remember that little phrase I said, work of service? That's our word for minister. Every member is a minister. When someone would ask me, well, how many ministers do you have at the church that you get to pastor?

You know what my answer is? Well, we have between 3,000 to 3,500 that come on the weekends and I know about a third of them or 40% of them are out doing something and you know for lots of good legitimate reasons are off a Sunday or weekend here or there and some of them for not so legitimate reasons are off a Sunday here and there. And so I would say we have about 3,000 ministers. Now some of them pose like secret agents, as stay at home moms or software engineers or CEOs or plumbers or construction workers and other people are on college campuses posing as students but actually underneath of it, underneath the robe of their clothes it says full-time minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's who you are. So you minister. 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.

Leader's job is to help equip you personally, spiritually, emotionally 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 old westerns.

We still kind of watch them. My wife has an amazing ability. I wish I had this. I can't sleep during the day but she takes these 15-minute naps and wakes up refreshed and I started doing some reading on it. It's supposed to be really good for you. I can take a two-hour nap I think or nothing and so I don't do anything. But it's real funny like on the weekends it's sort of time for her 15-minute nap and like she likes to nap to bonanza, gun smoke, you know these old things because she falls asleep quickly. And so I'm sitting there, you know, thinking what are we going to do when her 15 minutes are up and I always love the part on the old westerns where the bank's been robbed. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Boom, ba-boom, boom, ba-boom and then the marshal comes up, all right fellers, 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. Fred, you're now deputy. Bob, you're a deputy and right, they deputize them. And 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 really interesting experience because we talk about life change and sometimes when we talk about authentic community, 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 his power.

I had a weird experience with this. 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. She was working and I was coaching and working and then like on Tuesday and Thursday morning I 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. In fact that's why I actually thought I think God wants me, Chip, regular ordinary person to actually be a pastor and I thought you gotta 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 so we go to seminary and you know 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 people invited us so we ended up this church about 2500 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 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 please don't make too heavy application on this. 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're doing this great stuff with our 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 in church with such good teaching I've never been to 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 begin 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 mean I was in a 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 riding on a napkin I said okay we're gonna fix this so you know I'm working full-time I've gone to school full-time I don't have any time but I'm thinking if my spiritual life is I mean I'm doing a dive there's no power there's no energy there's no life and so I got an appointment with the pastor and we sat down at this booth in this little restaurant and on a three by five card I had my name my phone number what I thought my spiritual gifts were 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 and 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 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 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 know is that in God's design when leaders equip instead of do all the ministry and Rob people love 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 outreaches 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 your apartment and look around and realize nine out of ten 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 lit up close and he was sitting across his bed and I asked him 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 gonna die he's gonna die and right now all indications are that he's gonna 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're gonna receive his gift and you know he looked at me and you know what hit me this morning everyone I meet is gonna die is this true or not you know your neighbors I got news for you flash they're gonna die you know your co-workers they're gonna die you know your family they're gonna 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 learned 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 noticed they fail a lot you find me in the Gospels where he yells at him 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 a 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 gonna 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 meeting with a young pastor doing a little mentoring 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'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 gonna we're gonna train him we're gonna help him we're gonna love him but just every person 300 people this time next year we're gonna 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 you gonna 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 of the equipers 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 every joint supply we need you here's the deal this isn't like I hear some people like oh 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 gonna die and there's gonna be people at your house or near your house eating those little munchy little sandwiches and they're gonna 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 had his idiosyncrasies and they laugh about those but full of integrity Christ-like cared about people generous loving authentic that's not gonna happen by trying hard and coming and sitting in this building to be a good person that's gonna happen when you understand who you are in Christ when you understand the power is in Christ 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 and love and you are connected and God produces it you're listening to Living on the Edge Chip will be right back with his application for this message how to become the person you've always longed to be 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 org call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or tap special offers on the chip Ingram app chip before you come back and talk about today's message one of the things we hear from listeners is they go through seasons where they feel like God is distant they want a deeper relationship with him but they're just not sure how what would you say to someone who's struggling with that right now well Dave I think we all go through times like that and the thing that helped me the most was a bricklayer met with me when I was a new Christian and we literally met one-on-one he mentored me and rather than saying what I ought to do you ought to read you ought to pray you ought to get to know God he did it with me and so we have a brand new thing called daily discipleship that will be coming out from Ephesians chapter 4 and it's about how to be transformed it's yes you really can change and I will meet with people individually I'll never speak more than 10 minutes and then I'm gonna ask them for just 10 minutes of their time each and every day for about 19 or 20 days and what I've learned is if people will do that with me individually they build a habit they'll learn to hear God's voice and it's not like just a teaching time it's literally I have a cup of coffee and I'm going to walk them through Ephesians chapter 4 and help them coach them mentor them into how do you connect with God so he doesn't feel distant so you really hear his voice so it's absolutely no cost we don't even ask people for their personal information this is just an opportunity to say we want to help you grow spiritually Dave why don't you give them all the information about how they can get connected to this happy to daily discipleship with Chip our short daily sessions with Chip where he walks you through how to study a passage from the Bible and really hear God's voice these sessions are designed to help you get into the practice of doing that every day the study chips recommending is based on his current series from Ephesians chapter 4 yes you really can change understanding the process of how genuine life change really happens is essential to getting spiritually unstuck if you think meeting with Chip would help you do that I hope you'll make it a part of your routine for the next few weeks you'll find the daily discipleship with Chip at Living on the Edge org on the home page app listeners just tap discipleship 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 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 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 in 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 you know maybe it's teaching but and you know they give you like a list of seven or eight and you just realize in your heart of hearts you don't have a clue I mean spiritual gifts are like yeah mm-hmm it's sort of a neat idea and I'm sure I've got some 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 super natural ability to love and help other people and so here's my challenge to you if you're a little bit foggy on spiritual gifts we have a small group series or you could just listen to it it's called your divine design I developed it at a time when I had all these different denominational groups and I could only use the Bible no tests no gift inventories but just the Bible and I'm so thankful because what we've seen as people study your divine design as they go through it in a group they come away with this is my gift here's how to use it and here's where I'm going to use it I covet that for you for God's glory and you're good well the resource chip just mentioned is your divine design how to discover develop and deploy your spiritual gifts as a Living on the Edge listener you know we're committed to helping Christians really live like Christians and your divine design helps you take one of the most important steps in your spiritual growth understanding your spiritual gifts you'll learn how to recognize spiritual gifts why you need to develop those gifts and how you can start using them if you're ready to experience a greater sense of purpose and joy in your life your divine design is for you you'll find all of the your divine design resources on our website at Living on the Edge org be sure to join us again next time when chip continues his series yes you really can change until then this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge