The High Impact Pastor - The Secret to Jesus' Impact

I'd like to ask you an honest question. When is the last time you prayed for your pastor?

I mean deeply and intensely. When's the last time you gave your pastor a call or a text, a gift card, or said, why don't you come over for dinner? What I want you to know is your pastor needs you and how you can help them today.

Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouie, and the mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Thanks for joining us as we continue our series, The High-Impact Pastor, Building God's Church Jesus Way. But before we get going, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge, or you just want to learn more about what we do, go to Living on the Edge dot o-r-g.

There you'll find tons of resources on a wide range of topics and countless programs for you to enjoy. Okay, let's join Chip now for today's message, The Secret to Jesus' Impact. I was in the East Coast of America recently, and a young man that I've had the privilege of mentoring for 12, 14 years.

He's in his mid-40s. He's a church planner, and he's a real pioneer and entrepreneur, and so he's been involved in a church planning network in some of the hardest places to plan a church. We sat over breakfast as I was in his town, and he looked as sad, as worn out. He told me, it's the worst, the hardest year I can ever remember. He said, the hardest by far is, he says, I have four fellow pastors that got so discouraged.

I mean, four that I knew and knew well that committed suicide. And then he said, I can name 10 others who quit the ministry. So what I want you to know is it is very, very difficult, but I also want you to remember that what we're experiencing is so much like the first century. Can you imagine being a pastor in the Roman Empire? Can you imagine the Jews thinking you were off your rocker?

The early church and all the disciples were, many of them, disowned and persecuted. And so I want to pull back the lens, and I want to remind you and me of some things that we really believe. And then in this session, I want to share Jesus' secret to success and impact.

I want to share what he actually did, not what he said, what he actually did. And I'm going to propose that if we will do what Jesus did, we will begin to see the kind of fruit that Jesus had. Let me just ask you to lean back, and do you agree with these statements?

Because I do with all my heart. Statement number one, God's purposes cannot be thwarted, right? Job 42.2. God's purpose is what he's going to do, no pandemic, no evil, no government, no rule, no law can thwart that. Number two, it is God's will for the gospel to go to everyone in the world.

We know that for sure. It's Matthew 28. He commanded. Number three, it is God's will for every child of God to grow and become spiritually mature, right? Romans 8.29. God does work all things together for good.

Not that it always comes out good in our present day, but why? For those who are called and those who are loved to conform us to the image of Christ. Number four, the greatest apologetic in the world is spiritually mature Christians who love each other deeply. Remember the very last night Jesus said to his disciples, he'd washed their feet, and he says, a new commandment I've given to you.

Love one another in the same way that I have loved you. By this the world will know that you are my disciples. Number five, God's primary agent of change in the world is the church, the body of Christ. It's us. He said we are the light of the world.

We are the salt. And then finally, I think you know this and I know this, the key to every church is the pastor. It's a lot of responsibility.

It's a big stewardship. But if we would think together, have you ever gone to a great church, I mean where there's great fruit, Holy Spirit is working, the Word of God is preached, the people are mobilized and met a bad pastor, a weak pastor, a lazy pastor? Every great church that I've ever been to, I find a man or a woman who walks deeply with God, and the Spirit of God is working through him. And here's my, here's my premise.

Here's what I'd like you to consider with me. What if the reason so many of those in our church and all that we've been through, the reason that they fainted, the reason that they were weak is that we actually grew a church and grew a ministry. But we really didn't make as many fruitful Romans 12 Christians who were surrendered to God and separate from the world's values that knew who they were in Christ, who were actively serving in love. And no matter what came at them, they supernaturally responded to evil with good. Now, what I know is many of you have people in your church that are those kind of Christians and they're making a difference.

That's what we long for. But why? Why are there more Christians like that? I'm going to suggest that the reason that is, is the very reason that Jesus said to the Christian leaders, the spiritual leaders, the Jewish leaders, people who were listening to him from all kind of backgrounds, and he said they see but they don't perceive. They hear but they don't understand. And he says, what I would really want to do, I want them to see and perceive and to hear and really understand so that I could heal them because God's purposes, His goodness, His love, He doesn't want any to perish but all come to a knowledge of the truth. And I've asked myself in my own life, why? What's missing? Of course we've seen some good things here and there but what's really missing? And I have something for you to consider. What if Jesus not only taught and revealed the secrets of the kingdom, right?

How it works, how it's planted, how it grows, what promotes it, how you measure it. What if He not only taught us the secrets of the kingdom but He actually modeled for us what we are to do? In other words, for much of my life as a pastor, I did what Jesus said. But did I actually do what Jesus did?

You're scratching your head right now. Here's what I mean. I want to walk you through the preparation because when He sowed the seed of God's Word, there was power, there was moral authority. When He spoke, no one spoke like this man who has authority. And when He spoke the Word of God, the Word of God went out with power. And those hearts that were open like the disciples, it began to grow and then it multiplied. And so I want you to walk with me through this lens of a Romans 12 Christian. And I want to show you that the Apostle Paul didn't just pull these thoughts out of the air. Go back to Luke where the baptism occurs.

Are you ready? Go back in your Bibles. Luke chapter 3. Jesus for 30 years, He's a carpenter.

And He's learned to live in a culture and He works hard and He knows what life is like. And the Father speaks to His Spirit and says, It's time to start your ministry. The first thing you're to do, John the Baptist has blazed the trail.

He's worked up the soil. He's let people know that injustice is wrong and you need to repent and there's a great need. And so I want you to go and I want you to let John baptize you. So often we think, oh yes, Jesus went and He obeyed and He baptized. Why was John baptizing? He was baptizing for the remission, for the repentance of sins. People acknowledging publicly, I've lied, I've cheated, I've committed affairs, I've charged too much money, I was a soldier, I've been abusive, right?

That was the message. So I want you to understand that when Jesus was being baptized, I think it was next to the cross the most important and biggest moment of surrender to the Father's will. I know in my own life when people think I have done something and I really haven't done it, few things bother me as much. They think I lied or they think I did this or they think I misused this, right?

We've all been accused of things. Jesus is going to identify with all of us and people on the outside, what did they think? He must be just like us, He's coming to repent.

But it is in that moment of surrender then what happens? He hears the Father's voice, you are my deeply loved Son and you I'm well pleased. And then He got the affirmation, the visible affirmation of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And what I want you to get is that when Jesus said you need to do this, you need to do that, He also said follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men.

Don't follow just what I say, follow me. And His baptism was as the leader who will launch God's kingdom on earth. He surrendered His reputation, His identity and then He began to minister not for God's favor but from God's favor.

What's the second thing that He did? And then He was led in the Holy Spirit after His baptism and He goes into the desert and He does battle with the enemy. And Satan comes and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the three temptations and how does He overcome it? He doesn't overcome it by saying I'm God, you can't do that. He's fully man and so in dependence on the Father He reaches back into the book of Deuteronomy and says it is written, it is written, it is written. See the secret of Jesus' ministry was in His full humanity He wanted to please the Father in dependency but He did it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what He's modeling. So He surrenders and then second what's He do? He's doing battle to be separate from the world's values. Satan offered Him the world and he offered Him a shortcut.

Well then what did He do? You can pick it up in Luke chapter 4 right after the temptations Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. News about Him spread throughout the surrounding region and He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all and He came to Nazareth where He'd been brought up and as was His custom He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read and the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him and He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and then He rolled the scroll up and He gave it back to the attendant and He sat down and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed on Him and He began to say today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Now are you watching the path? Jesus is modeling for us separate from the world's values. Now He goes to His hometown and shortly after this what happens? His family rejects Him, His hometown rejects Him and where does He get His assessment?

Who am I? What's His sober assessment? He looks into the Word of God and He takes the passage that says this is the Messiah, this is His role and it is the Word of God and Him saying to those people this is who I am and that's the pattern God has for us. Knowing our role, knowing our calling and then it's interesting He's surrendered, He's done battle, He's separate from the world's values, He has a sober self-assessment, He's experienced significant rejection and sometimes I think we over spiritualize. The disciples didn't see Him drop everything and then go off with Him immediately. As you read all four of the gospels you find the first six months Jesus begins to teach and He goes to a wedding and then there's the first miracle and He hangs out with Peter and Andrew and Nathaniel, they come together and here we are they're just friends and they're learning and they're walking and they're getting to know Him and getting to trust Him and then they hear Him teach and then they see a miracle and they're hanging out but He has not called them to full-time ministry, they're kind of part-time volunteers who really want to get to know Him.

And so what do you do when you have friends? When you have a need with a friend and He can do miracles you say Jesus, my mother-in-law she's very sick, do you think you could come over? And so here we have the text with His friends, I don't mean to be unspiritual but these are His buddies, these are His brothers, He does life in community and He heals her and then word spreads and I mean at that house people came from everywhere and you get the picture of it being late into the evening and the text says every single one was healed and He cast out many demons and He wouldn't let the demons say who He was because they knew you are the Holy One of God. And so He's serving in love and then it's very very interesting He gets up a great while before dawn, Mark says, and He went to a lonely place and there He prayed and what He does He's praying to remember why did I come? He doesn't let success deter Him from His direction and so the crowds came and said there were hundreds last night and there's thousands later I mean you are big stuff and He says no I must preach because that's why I came to all the other villages.

Are you seeing the pattern? And then when He called the disciples and there's what? A demon possessed man and what does He do? He speaks to the demon and He overcomes the evil with good.

I want you to see something. If you were one of those disciples you would be asking yourself, despite what you've seen so far, it sure seems like everything is rooted in His Word. He speaks the Word.

When He speaks things change. And then after they've had this teaching time, they've had a big lecture, the seed, the sower, they've had parables about how the kingdom works and what their role is going to be. I believe the biggest question in their mind is can we trust His Word?

They were like us. I believe He's the Messiah but sometimes I don't and if I'm going to leave my family, if I'm going to leave my job, He's asking for total commitment, if I'm really going to surrender, right? And then what's He do? He does what God the Father directs Him to do to help them have confidence in who He is. And so He says to them, let's go to the other side. And a great storm happens and do you remember how He calms the storm? He speaks and the wind and the waves are calmed. And what's their question? Who is this?

They're coming to an awareness. Who is this that speaks to nature, to chaos and calms it? And do you remember, so what's the next thing He does? And then He ends up on the shore and there's the demoniac and there's a legion of demons and as He speaks the demon says, you know, don't torment me and He sends the demons into the pig and to verify that out of His Word those demons obey Him.

He has authority over nature, He has authority over all demonic powers. And then they head back over and Jairus' daughter, remember the synagogue ruler, my daughter is dying, please come. But on the way the woman touches Him and power comes out of Him and as it does He stops. And do you remember what He says to her? Daughter, your faith has made you well. If you study these passages, each one after the parable of the seeds and the sowers, these four episodes and then He raises Jairus' daughter from the dead and do you remember how He does it?

He doesn't touch her. He says, I say to you little girl arise. The secret to Jesus' impact was that He modeled for the disciples what He wanted them to become. Now I want you to ponder, have you come before God and said, I am all in, I surrender all that I am, all that I have, I'm willing to do whatever especially during this time of chaos in world history. You need all of me. And have you done battle? Have you taken some time to fast and to pray and to get alone and ask yourself where and how has the world crept into your life? Where are you tempted in the areas of the flesh, the areas of the eyes of the pride of life? And allow God to do a deep inventory in you. And then ask yourself, do you know what your gifts are? Do you know what your role is?

We get pictures of our heroes and we want to be like them instead of a sober self-assessment. To be able to look into the mirror of God's word and say, Lord, I believe that my value isn't what I do. Lord, I believe that I'm wanted and loved and redeemed. I believe that you've gifted me. I believe I'm unique. I believe you have a purpose for me.

I want to know what that is. And then serving in love. We need one another. We have to support one another. Look at what's happening in the world and all this chaos. Now light is being called darkness and what's right is being called wrong. Our world's changing. I don't know when the Lord is returning, but it certainly looks like we're moving faster and faster in that direction.

It's time to come together. And then to be able to overcome evil with good. You need to be what you want those in your church to become. You see, at the end of the day, Jesus said at best, Luke 6 40, a student when he's fully trained will be just like his teacher. And if you go on after those miraculous times, what happens to the disciples?

They have their moments of surrender. Then he sends them out two by two and he allows them to get in situations where they learn to cast out demons and they heal the way he heals and they communicate the way he does. But he's with them and their struggles and their doubts. Something else I want to say is that there's a pattern of Jesus' life over and over and over. The different gospels play it out in different ways. Matthew constantly is bringing about the fulfillment of prophecy because he's writing to Jews. Mark goes very, very fast and talks about Jesus as a man of action. But Luke is written to the Greeks. He's written to those people that don't have a lot of Jewish background and he really wants to show them the humanity of Jesus and dependence on the Holy Spirit to please the Father.

And you will see a pattern in his life. Look at every time where it says Jesus prayed, Jesus went to a lonely place. Jesus spent time.

Jesus shared his heart. Here's what I want you to get is a pattern that changed the course at least of my ministry as a pastor. I was in a new church that I told you about that was deeply, deeply broken. I tried to get them to get into a group, trying to get them in some sort of pattern or program that the church had to disciple them. It was like herding cats.

No matter what I did, I couldn't do it. And as I began to study the life of Jesus, I watched a pattern emerge and I watched that Jesus spent time before God. He had very private time with God and that's been something that I practiced all my years as a pastor.

First and foremost, time alone with God. And the second thing I noticed about Jesus, even before he called the disciples, very early on, he becomes friends. He does life and community with Andrew and Nathaniel and Peter and I think they have fun together and they share together and they have common hearts.

And then the third thing is he's on mission. The Greek word bio means life. I was struggling in this church for the first couple of years and I realized I don't think I can get these busy people to do my program that I think will help them become Romans 12 Christians.

There's a clear picture, right? Romans 12 is a picture of a mature disciple. But what's the pathway in everyday life? And so the Lord began to speak to me and it's bio. They might have life and they might have it abundantly. And so I remember I was taking a walk one day and I thought, you know what I really want is for everyone in the church to develop the rhythm in their life where they come before God specifically daily and then practice his presence and come before God in worship. And I want them, what if they did life in community? And by that I mean with other people, close relationships, even if it wasn't in the church. And then if they could discover their gift if they were on mission 24-7.

And so bio became a bit of a pathway. And so I said to these leaders and busy people flying all over the world, I said, if you're going to become a Romans 12 Christian, you have to practice, you need to come be before God daily. You need to do iWeekly in community, life with others from the heart, and O on mission 24-7. And what I realized is the goal is to make them self-feeders, not just be in the programs of our church. I said if you can have a small group meeting and do community with business leaders, even with members of another church, I don't care where and how you do it, but what I want you to do is meet with God daily and hear his voice. I want you to learn to obey him and have friends that will support you. And then I want you to discover who he made you to be and be on mission.

And here's what I will tell you. God did something great. It mobilized people.

They started doing life in community. They started meeting with God. And yes, we had resources and we had programs, we had different ways, but my goal changed from how do I get them to come to church, how do I get them to do our programs, to how do I empower them to do what Jesus did?

Come first before the Father and say I want to please you and spend time in his word and hear his voice. And then as they get direction, say I can't do this on my own and join with other believers. And then to discover how God made them and begin to be on mission, to be a servant at home, to be a servant as an employer, an employee, to be a servant where they go and how they walk and how they drive and how they speak. And little by little by little by little, now we have a picture of fruitfulness, a Romans 12 Christian. The secret to Jesus' impact, remember that's what I titled this? The secret to his impact is that his life spoke louder than any of his words.

More is caught than taught. They caught his passion. When they saw his life they said will you teach us to pray the way you pray? They saw his heart and compassion.

They saw the way he lived and what he felt. They heard his prayers. When you get close to the people in your church, that mustard seed of those few people that you say to them, let's become Romans 12 Christians. Go on a journey with me. What I want you to know that God is going to do some deep stuff in you.

And some of it is not going to be easy. But if you'll go there, if you'll walk the path that Jesus walked and if you will do what Jesus did in the power of the Holy Spirit to please your Heavenly Father very imperfectly like all of us, you will begin to produce the fruit that Jesus produced. When that changed in my ministry, I saw God do things here and around the world that I never imagined. Because it wasn't about getting him to church. It wasn't about how many showed up.

It wasn't about how many buildings we had or how much money came in. It was about measuring the ministry by the disciples that are made. I've done it very, very imperfectly. God is still working very, very much in me. But I will tell you this, when you walk with the Lord Jesus that way, the power of the Holy Spirit living out the Word of God, he will do things in you and through you exceedingly beyond what you could ever ask or think. And so Father, that's our prayer. We don't want to just follow your teaching, Lord Jesus. We want to walk in your steps.

We want to have a sober, accurate view of ourselves. Lord, we want to be connected deeply in relationships that are peer relationships that give us life and we give life. And Lord, we want to have a band of brothers or a band of sisters that when we're attacked and when there's injustice and when it's challenging, that Lord, we can have the strength to overcome evil with good by your grace and by your power. Would you help us to learn to come before you daily, to do life in community weekly, to be on mission 24 seven every day of the year for your glory. Before we wrap up today's program, I'd like to speak to you directly rather than your pastor. As you listen to this program and we talked about actually doing what Jesus did, would you be willing before God to take responsibility for your own spiritual growth? In other words, over time, I hear Christians all the time and I've pastored for over 35 years.

It's like, well, why aren't we doing this and why don't you start that? And if you made this available and there's not a group during my time, one of the most revolutionary things that happened in my life was I realized I can be a shepherd, but every individual has to own the responsibility. I mean, after you're a baby Christian, if you're not a mature believer, if you're not following Jesus, if you don't come before him daily, if you're not doing life in community, if you're not on mission, discovering your gifts and making a difference, that's your responsibility. That's not your pastor's. In fact, we came up with a little acronym at Living on the Edge and where I pastored, we call it BIO for life because Jesus came to give life before God, in community, on mission. And if you would own that, I will tell you what, your church would be a different place and your pastor would be very encouraged.

Thanks Chip. As we close, if you'd like to learn more about the work Living on the Edge is doing with and for pastors all across the globe, read through our newest ministry report at livingontheedge.org. It highlights the specific ways we've been encouraging church leaders this past year. And if God is calling you to partner with us financially in this cause for pastors, there's never been a better time to stand with us.

Right now, every dollar we receive through July 7th will be doubled for greater impact. To make a donation, go to livingontheedge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap donate. Thanks for your support and doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, be sure to join us next time as Chip wraps up his new series, The High Impact Pastor, Building God's Church Jesus Way. Until then, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. We'll see you next time.