Real Discipleship - Empowering Others - The Secret to a Life of Impact, Part 2

Can I let you in on a little secret? I am way more comfortable sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a few thousand people than I am with one single person across the table or on an airplane flight. You know, we all get intimidated. Now, here's the question. Why were the disciples so bold and why do we struggle so much?

That's today. Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. I'm Dave Druey, and could you relate to the situation Chip just posed? Are you shy or nervous about sharing your faith with friends or family?

Do you wish you were more confident? Well, in just a minute, Chip will share how you can make that happen as he continues his series, Real Discipleship. Now, a quick listener note. Chip taught this series several years ago, so the program is going to sound a little different, but the truth he'll bring from God's Word is still really impactful. So if you have a Bible handy, turn now to Mark Chapter 6 for Part 2 of Chip's Message, Empowering Others, The Secret to a Life of Impact. I mean, I saw him lead two weeks. He led maids to Christ, bus drivers to Christ, and he did it in a winsome way.

I mean, you know, not offensive at all. But he had a little plan. I watched him do it two or three times. He'd share Christ.

I remember on a bus this one time and this guy, and I was about two seats back and kind of listening. And the guy's just ready to become a Christian. Guess what Jack does? I mean, I'm thinking, close the deal, man. Close the deal.

No. You know what he does? He stops. He says, excuse me just a second. He said, hey, Jimmy, come on up here.

Will you for a second? And this young college sophomore comes up and sits down with him. I mean, I'm thinking, hey, Jack, I don't know much about evangelism, but the guy's ready to become a Christian. And he brings this guy. He introduces him, lets him talk a few minutes, and then he turns to Jimmy and says, you know, I've explained to him, and he's really interested in becoming a Christian.

Could you talk with him a little bit? I think that he'll be ready to pray and receive Christ here soon. And he says, I'll be back in just a second. He'd go back to the bus. Five or ten minutes later, Jimmy's bowing his head with this guy.

Guess what? Jimmy's led his first person to the Lord. See, Jack King understands he's led hundreds of people to Christ. Does he need to learn how? What's he doing? He's multiplying his life. You want God to use you? Multiply your life.

That's how you do it. Out of this passage in how to coach people to multiply your life, one, remember this, accomplishing tasks is less important than developing people. If you want it, two words to remember it, grow people.

It's more important that your son or daughter learns something than the garage gets absolutely clean or that the floor is spotless or that the tub doesn't have any residue of rain. It's more important that the small group gets a chance to lead. See, develop people, grow people. You'll get the task done, but accomplishing tasks is less important than developing people. Because there's always a lot of tasks, but there's very few people who really want to grow. Number two, ability is always less important than availability. It's not what you can do that is crucial. It's what God can do through you. So, get others involved.

The focus is grow people. The method is get other people involved. Don't go anyplace alone. Don't pray alone. I mean, you know, except for your private time. If you're going to share Christ, bring a friend. If you're going to pray, if you're involved in anything, bring people.

Get them involved and they'll catch it. Third, resources are always less important than reliance. You'll never have enough. We take the steps and God provides. My philosophy of leadership is get the snowball rolling downhill and to pick up speed, try and decide where it ought to go. Because my observation is in people's lives and organizations and churches, most of them never get the snowball off the hill. It needs to rain a little bit more.

I don't think it'll pack quite right. Well, you know, about three miles down, there's a turn. We don't know how we're going to turn.

So what? Get it going. Resources are always less important than reliance. Bring what you have to God and He'll do something. The strategy is build on what you have. Focus is to grow people. The method is get others involved. The strategy, build on what you have, not on what you don't have.

And finally, the goal. Learning more is far less important than participating in what you already know. Make others successful. Let them try it. You know, let your kid, if he's small, let him learn to build a fire.

Let him try the stove. Let him, you know, with great supervision, but coach him. Let them try it.

People learn by doing, not by watching. Let them pray. Let them lead. Let them share the testimony. Let them take 10 minutes of the group. That's how people expand and grow. Now, once you get them coached, then you need to support them because now that will teach people how to feed others.

Now, let's talk about how you can teach people to lead others. We pick it up in verse 45. Immediately after this big miracle, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and to go ahead of Him to Bethsathia while He dismissed the crowd. Now, I said this passage is in all four gospels.

That's really important because you have to read John chapter 6 to find out why He immediately dismissed them and sent them on ahead. You know why? Well, picture it, will you? I mean, you go to a big party.

You hear a good teacher. No one has anything to eat. There's 20,000 of us on the hillside. We break up into groups and the guy puts on a feast. Whoa! I mean, would you like to have this guy around? You know, every time we're hungry, you know, we never work again.

This is great. So, the people, it says in John 6, they came and tried to make Him king by force. Now, can you imagine if the disciples aren't quite ready, they're not quite mature, their leadership isn't quite where it needs to be. Jesus doesn't want them exposed to that. He gets rid of them. Hey, you guys get out on the boat.

I'll catch you later. Because one of the things about developing leaders is the principle of pacing. Never give them more than they can handle. The disciples are not ready because they're still, you know, nationalistic.

They've still got a lot of ego involved. They'd like to be the best buddies of the new king. So, Jesus sends them away. Second thing, notice what He does. Second way to develop leaders. And leaving them, He went into the hills to pray.

It's something the church talks a lot about, but we need to take more seriously than we've ever taken it before. You really want to develop leaders. What do leaders need?

You coach people and give them skills. What do leaders need? If they're really going to go on, you give them support. You know what they need? They need confidence, they need guidance, and they need character. How do people get confidence? How do they get character?

You know how? God gives it. And the only thing you can do and I can do to produce that in the lives of other people is one, model it, but two, pray it. You pray for humility in so-and-so's heart. You pray for strength and vision.

You pray for conviction for this one. You pray, you intercede, and this was a pattern of Christ's life. You know, I went to a school that has a lot to do with people that are really pretty smart, and I was intimidated for a couple years. But, you know, I went in different professors' offices for almost two years until I came into Walt Baker's office.

Walt Baker is a missionary in Haiti for 15 years, and he goes back every summer with about 40 or 50 students. And I didn't know the guy. I just came in to ask a question. I came in, he shut the door.

Oh, gosh, what's going to happen here? And we had a very brief conversation, and I started to get up, and he reached out his hand. I mean, he's got a big hand.

He's a big man. And he put his hand around me and put his hand on my shoulder, and then this guy prayed for me. And I was shaking.

Whoa. See, he didn't think that getting more in my head would change my life. He thought if God did something in my heart, he would change my life. Later on, I went with a group of businessmen with Walt and a few other pastors, and we were in Haiti. And he and I roomed together at this little village. I mean, it was like a hut. And before we went to bed, I remember Walt saying, Hey, Chip, let's pray.

This mammoth guy with these big arms, and it's a sweaty little place. And we kneeled down, and so helped me. My knees hurt. I never knelt that long. See, I was with a man of God, and I heard him cry out for the people of Haiti and for me.

And he put this big bear hug arm on my shoulder. Whoa, wow. You see, that's how you transform people's life. That's how you develop leaders. There's not only tricks and techniques and books and jazz.

They need that up here. But you need to enlarge their heart. After the principle of pacing, the second principle is the principle of power and perspective. You give power to people by praying for them. Now, notice where he goes from here.

After he prays for them, now he's going to stretch them. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of a lake. I'm in verse 47. And he was alone on the land. And he saw the disciples straining at the oars. Now, he could see them. It was the Passover time we know. Full moon is at Passover time.

The lake is only about four miles wide. He's up on a mountain. He can see them. The wind was against him. Adversity. They've had a big victory. This is the way it usually happens. Now the adversity comes.

About the fourth watch of the night, that's 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., he went out to them, walking on the lake. What do leaders need? Well, they've been prayed for. But now, in their time of adversity, what they need is your presence. They need support. They need encouragement. Because the most committed people get out there and they do it and they do it and they do it. And they're just like you and I.

They get discouraged and they wonder if it makes any difference. He was about to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. And they cried out because they all saw him and they were terrified. Notice how he stretched them.

See, this is a plan. Do you remember the last time he was in the boat with the disciples? Do you remember it? Chapter 1, chapter 2? It was daytime then.

What is it now? Nighttime. Would you rather go somewhere unknown in the day or in the night?

Which is the more challenging? The last time he was in the rear of the boat, wasn't he? And the waves are crashing.

All they had to do was reach over. God, do you care or not? And he took care of it. Now, he's not in the boat. He's on the mountain praying where he's on the water.

You know what he wanted them to learn? Whether it's day or whether it's night, whether my presence is there physically or whether I'm praying for you, my presence is available. I will help you through. I'm your shepherd.

And I'll be a shepherd to you so you can be a shepherd to others. And he stretches them. And they're terrified and they cry out. He gets in the boat. Boom.

It happens again. And see, there's a real balance there. He stretches them. He takes them to a new level.

And then he comes right back and he comforts. Third principle I see here is feed people opportunity and responsibility. It's a principle of faithfulness.

He stretches them. They were faithful in this area. He gives them more. They were faithful here. He gives them more. They do a little preaching, did a good job. Now they get to feed 5,000. They begin to trust him so he stretches them and gives them experience that's even more difficult.

Pretty soon, guess what? He's not in the boat. He's not on the mountain. He's in heaven. And Peter will stand up before 5,000 people and say, Hey, you know what?

If whether it's right to do what God wants or what men want, I'll tell you what. You can kill me because he's real. He's real. He didn't learn that overnight. He was faithful in a little and then he was faithful in much. We need to do that with our children. We need to do it with leaders that we're developing. And then let's go on and find out what he does. Then he climbed in the boat with them.

The wind died down. They were completely amazed because this is the problem with all developing people and our problem. For they had not understood about the loaves and their hearts were hardened. The most important thing we can do is develop people's faith. Their faith. Not their skills, not their head. Their belief system that God is real, that he's powerful, whether they know this much or that much. So that when they're in a crisis, instead of them first dialing the phone and saying, Oh, it's really bad, really bad. Will you help me, help me, help me?

They'll get on their knees and turn to God. A guy named Bill Hatcher and I became good friends. I was coaching and teaching and leading ministry and this college had a big open court and at night I'd go up and play basketball and he was the S&H representative for the region. And we became friends, make a long story short, we had a lot of pizza, we had a lot of fun, played a lot of ball and four months later he trusted Christ. And then I met with him once a week and started to coach him with the skills. Here's how you read the Bible. Here's how you pray.

And then I started to support him as he began to reach out to people in the marketplace where he was. Well, one night he and I and Teresa, we wanted to go to a different college and see a game and Teresa had a friend there, so we dropped Teresa off and we went down this long grade, 150, 200 feet and we just assumed, and it was real, real snowy, and we just assumed there was a different way out. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Okay? So we go all the way down this thing and we assumed wrong. And what happens is we drop Teresa off, we turn the car around, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz. I mean, we're dead. I mean, it's long.

This isn't a little grade. There's no way to get up and then God did something that, please take this rightly. This has happened four or five times in my life, all right? This is not some extraterrestrial experience. I had a little prompting from God that said, Chip, no audible voice, I want you to pray, but I want you to pray real vividly and pray specifically that I will reveal myself so Bill will know that I'm powerful and can even do stuff like this and care about him.

Brand new Christian. And I'm thinking, first of all, I've been reading too many novels. You know, this can't be God.

Boom, boom, I get prompted again. And then I'm thinking, first of all, God, this will really embarrass you if it doesn't work. Right, you know? And so, okay, God, I'll do this. I bow my head. I say, hey, Bill, let's pray.

And, you know, he's green. Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, he doesn't know how this works anyway. And I bow my head and I still vividly remember. I said, God, whether we go to this game is irrelevant.

Whether we get up this hill is irrelevant. But I'm asking you now that Bill might understand that there is a God who has power who is actually supernatural and can do anything. Would you allow this car to go right up this hill so Bill would know that you're real and you're going to take care of you and be a shepherd? I looked at him, put it in drive. He looked at me like, yeah, right. He put it in drive.

I mean, we didn't even slip. And we get to the top of the hill and this guy's eyes are like this. Hey, now, then I had to tell him, I said, hey, Bill, I was scared to death. It wasn't going to work. I thought God wanted me to do it.

But, Bill, look, no matter where you go, because he was going to be transferred, you need to know you don't need Chip. You got God. You got Jesus. That's the final step, the principle of transference. What you want to do is give people the ball, the ball of faith, where they know God will be their God. Then you know that's success. You've multiplied your life. You want your kids to walk out the door and say, Mom, Dad, thanks, great.

I love you, but I got him. That's a successful parent with all the ups and downs and things are going to hit. And, you know, the small group leader and the ministry team person and the friend at work that you're helping grow, you coach them, you support them, and then you delegate and they catch the vision. And guess what? Then we multiply here.

Look at the result. The product of this kind of ministry is not that we add a little here and there. The product of this kind of ministry, look at the end of the passage.

It's fantastic. Then Jesus, when all the crowd had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and they anchored there. And as soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.

That's what happens. When lives are multiplied, people, multitudes, recognize Christ. They ran throughout the whole region. They carried the sick on mats wherever they heard he was. And everywhere he went into the villages or towns or countrysides, they placed the sick in the marketplaces.

They begged him to let him come and touch even the edge of their cloak. And all who touched him were healed. The story starts with people where? Like sheep without a shepherd. He invests in coaching and supporting the Twelve. How does the story end?

With the people who recognize Christ and have their needs met. The sheep now have a shepherd. Who are you teaching to fish?

And I don't mean for salmon. Who are you teaching to fish? Who are you pouring your life into willfully, strategically, with a plan to coach them and support them so that a year from now they can do everything that you can do with a heart to do that in the lives of others. That's how you impact the community, not by addition. The Bible calls it discipleship, spiritual multiplication.

You ready to go for it? Chip will be right back with his application for this message Empowering Others, The Secret to a Life of Impact from his series Real Discipleship. Now you may be asking yourself, what does it mean to be a disciple? As Chip walks through Mark Chapter 6 through 10, he impacts this complex idea of discipleship by using the simple lessons Jesus taught his followers. Stay with us as we learn how commitment, evangelism, humility, and trust paint an accurate picture of what a genuine disciple of Jesus looks like. To learn more about this six-part series, Real Discipleship, or to catch up on past programs, visit livingontheedge.org. Well, Chip's in studio with me now, and Chip, today you wrapped up your message on empowering others to make an impact with their lives. Would you mind sharing how other people have empowered you?

Absolutely, Dave. When I look back on the moments and the investments of people throughout my life, my sister Punky, who modeled Jesus to me as a young teenager, you know, Dave, the bricklayer who sat with me in his kitchen table and invested his life in me as a young adult, or Dick, a man who came to me and said, Hey, Chip, we need to put this teaching of yours on the air, and he started Living on the Edge. Wherever we are in our journey, we're never beyond the need for discipleship. It might come through a listening ear or an encouraging word over a cup of coffee, or it might be one of those side-by-side doing Bible study together.

But it's always born in relationship, and it's deliberate. It's an investment into the life of another person. At Living on the Edge, we're committed to making that investment and helping people grow deeper in their relationship with Christ. And so whether it's teaching on the radio or podcasts or app or tools such as daily discipleship, our resources are geared to help people in every season of life.

And here's my question. If God has used the ministry of Living on the Edge to guide or deepen your life or the life of someone that you love, would you be willing to pray about investing in a few ways? Number one, would you pass on what you know to someone else? Second, would you share ministry resources with others? I mean, we have all kind of free ministry resources on the web and on the Chip Ingram app. And third, would you pray about giving financially to the ministry so that we can continue to make disciples at a time when it's more needed than ever before?

And right now, through July 7th, every gift that you would give will be doubled dollar for dollar. So thank you for pausing, thinking, and praying about what God would want you to do. And if you will do whatever He shows you, we will have all we need to do all God's called us to do. Keep pressing ahead. Well, if you're ready to support us, thank you. Your gifts are helping us in profound ways all around the world. But if you're still looking for a way to make a difference, let me suggest that you become a financial partner.

And right now is a great time to join the team. Because thanks to a handful of donors, every gift we receive between now and July 7th will be doubled. To send a gift, call us at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. Or go to livingontheedge.org, have listeners tap donate, and thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do. Well, Chip, as we wrap up this message, take a minute and share with us some easy ways we can practice the principles Jesus used with His disciples. I'd be glad to, Dave. You know, Jesus is so patient, and He has this amazing ability to stretch His disciples when they needed to be stretched.

And I just made a handful of observations. One is, only give people what they can handle. Too much, too soon, we'll crush them. He knew they were ready when He said, you feed them.

They just had no idea how it was going to happen. Now, those of you that are parents, I would start with your children. I think sometimes we get this idea that taking them to church, dropping them off, having them, you know, in a youth group or elementary classes, you've done your job.

Those are support vehicles. You disciple your children. The second thing is, you've got to mold them from a distance.

And I've watched my wife transform the lives of our children by prayer. And, you know, they're at school. You see issues that are coming up. You are meeting with someone, and you know they're struggling with an addiction. Or you see situations where people are struggling.

You can mold people from a distance. You empower them when you pray specifically for them. I just had that experience last week where I prayed very, very specifically for a guy that I'm helping. And, you know, only God can change a heart.

So, I had talked enough. I asked God to move in his heart. And when I got back with him, he volunteered. You know, that counselor that you talked about?

My wife and I, we went to see him. And it was super encouraging because it was God at work. The third is feed them opportunity and responsibility.

Jesus had only walked with these disciples not very long. And after they were learning, he not just allowed them, he got them into the game. I think so often we have people come to classes and learn more and learn more and go to a Bible study.

And we fill people's heads instead of allowing them to be hands-on and learn as they go. And again, I just would say, parents, don't go anyplace alone. When you go to the store, take one of your kids with you.

When you go anywhere, do anything. When you go out to minister, engage your kids. Engage the people that you want to help. More really is caught than taught. This is a passage where Jesus is turning the tables and helping his disciples really learn what it means to be a disciple maker.

Because the people who learn the most, who grow the most, are the people that are helping others learn the very things they're learning. So let me encourage you, do it at a good pace. Pray for them very, very much. And then jump in and let them be a part of the action. They won't do it as well as you'd want them to. But we remember getting the task done is not the priority. Getting the task done perfectly or even right is not always the highest priority.

Growing the person is. That's such a great reminder, Chip. Thanks. Well, as we close, you know, a great way to stay engaged and connected to Chip and Living on the Edge is through the Chip Ingram app. You'll get free access to all of Chip's recent messages, his message notes, and much more. We'll be with us again next time when Chip continues his series, Real Discipleship. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.