You Were Made for More - Declaring the Message, Part 2

How do you ever recover when you say something or do something you know is really wrong?

I mean a biggie. You lied. You had an affair. You say you're not addicted anymore, and the truth is that you are. How do you ever overcome that?

How do you break free? 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 Druey, and I bet we could all relate to the guilt Chip just described. When we mess up or do something we know we shouldn't have, that shame and remorse can be overwhelming. Well, today, Chip continues our new series, You Were Made for More, by unpacking the principle of repentance and how it works in our relationship with God and in our relationships with others.

But before we get started, if you're new to Living on the Edge or missed any part of this series, you can always catch up through the Chip Ingram app. If you have a Bible handy, turn now to Jonah chapter 3 as we join Chip for the second half of his talk, declaring the message. Here's the lesson that I at least learned from this passage from the Nine ofites. Receiving God's mercy requires faith, evidenced by repentance. See there's this whole big theme, this undercurrent about repentance. So let me just explain what repentance is, and repentance is not. Genuine repentance, it's a New Testament word, it's metanoia. So with or change, mind, and so there's an intellectual part of repentance. Second there's an emotional component. It's not just like Jonah, oh, yeah, I was supposed to talk to them about God, I don't really want to. He repented of it in his behavior, but his heart wasn't there. And then there's a volitional part, and the volitional part is your behavior is followed by your mind and your heart.

I was trying to think of a time when I learned that sin damages a person, and if you get that, how it changes your behavior. I was working full-time because Teresa needed to be home with our kids, and I mean it was like intense. I'm up like at 4, 4.30 and studying. I go to school, blah, blah, blah, blah. I come home, eat, play with the kids, then work until 11, get up, same thing. It was really intense. And my one sort of little moment was playing basketball, and so like coming home sometimes I could find a pickup game on an outdoor court, and I didn't have a cell phone, and if I did have a cell phone, I probably would have not called anyway. And Teresa, it always happened when she cooked a great meal, and her love language is service, so she served me, and I'd show up late, we'd have an argument, and she would look this way at night, I'd look this way at night, we wouldn't talk to each other for two days, and then we'd pretend it didn't happen.

Great conflict resolution. And so I come in, and there's candles on the table, and kids have already eaten, I'm really late, and she goes, I just want you to know that I spent the day cooking this meal because I love you. And I feel like you don't love me when I spend this time doing this for you, and you seem to not care about me, and not even call, and you do it, you know. And when I looked into her eyes, watered up, I realized, oh my, this isn't about basketball, this isn't about when you eat supper, oh, she feels like I don't love her. And all of a sudden, I've repented, I saw it through a new lens, a new mind map got placed inside my head, I was pierced to the heart, and I'm sure she might have a mildly different story, but I don't think I was late for dinner more than a handful of times in the next few years, because what I realized was I love her, I love her, I would never willfully do that, I thought it was about dinner, do you get it?

When you start thinking about that thing that you can't get over, when you start thinking it's all that junk, and you realize that when you willfully sin, it's damaging the person, and worse, it's damaging the heart of God, when you get that, I would tell you, you'll be motivated to change, because it's not like, okay, I crossed the line one more time, and Jesus says, there's 1 John 1, 9, if I can test my sin, he's faithful and just, forgive me of my sin, and climbs me from unrighteous, so I'm really sorry, erased again, erased again, erased, that's Jonah stuff, receiving God's mercy requires faith, evidenced by repentance and here's the principle, repentance is a prerequisite for progress, in any area of your life, repentance, you have to start thinking about it different, you have to look at it differently, you got to get a new set of categories, it's not your addiction, that's not the issue, it's not your job, it's not your circumstances, it's not this, it's not that, repentance is pausing, and saying, God, give me new eyes to see this through your lens, allow me to emotionally digest what this is doing to me and other people, and then, give me the grace to get on the exit ramp, and do a U-turn, and get on that, did you hear the song that we sang just before I got up? Your way is better, your way is better, I got a question for you, do you believe that or not? You think resolving anger his way is better? You think having a healthy relationship with the opposite sex when you're single, his way is better? Do you really believe that his way is better to manage your finances the way he says? Do you believe that forgiving someone that his way is better?

Do you honestly believe, unlike Jonah, that loving and caring and praying for the other political party, the racist on the other end? What would it take for the people that down deep you hate, the person that betrayed you, the person who walked out on you, the person that ripped you off, the man or the woman that's not paying their child support? What would happen if you repented of, I'm a victim, poor me, or I'm going to get him back?

And you just keep drinking that poison of unforgiveness thinking that they're going to die while you're drinking it. God says repentance is a prerequisite. In fact, in Mark chapter one, he introduces his message when he comes. Now after John, speaking of John the Baptist had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Namely, I'm here.

What's the response? Repent and believe in the gospel. The world's kingdom is power, success, looks, sex, money, repent. That path seems right to men, but it ends in death. There's a new path with a new king and he'll give life that's really life. But you have to repent. After he had lived a perfect life and taught his disciples and was unfairly in a trial, convicted, beaten, crucified, then rose from the dead. And after walking around for 40 days with over 500 eyewitnesses, he ascended to the right hand of the father. And the church waited because he said, you know, you were walking around with me in Galilee and Judea and I taught you everything, but it's going to get better.

It's going to get way, way, way better. Here's what I'm going to do. I want you guys to hang out in Jerusalem. And what I'm going to do is what I promised you. Remember that last night when we were hanging out and I took you out to the grape vines and gave you a little story about abiding and, you know, we prayed and, but I said it's better because the spirit of God's going to come and the spirit of God will manifest the father and the son inside of you. The moment you turn from your sin, repent, and he'll seal you and he'll live with you forever and he'll manifest the very personality, the power and the presence of Jesus.

And so that happens. It's called Pentecost and they're speaking in these other languages and people from everywhere are hearing this good news about God. And when they get it, they go, oh, so you mean that guy we killed, the guy that did the miracles, he was really God and he died for us and there's good news and we can have eternal life and there's a whole different path. That was basically the sermon by Peter. And here's the response to the sermon, Acts 2, 37, 38.

Now, when they heard this, what I just said, Peter said it way better. They were pierced to the heart and they said to Peter, to the rest of the angels, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, underline it in your notes, repent each of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Why? For the forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That day, 3000 people repented. As a person would trust in Jesus to be baptized wasn't like, oh, you know, this is a nice religious thing. And they got baptized then because it was like, I've died to my old life and the moment they got baptized, guess what? We do a lot of work in the Middle East when they trust Christ and then when they're baptized, they have a funeral for whoever did that because you are dead.

This wasn't a repentance like, oh, I feel really sorry. And I hear, I can pray a little prayer. This is, there's a new path with a new King and he'll give life. That's really life. And so I would ask you, what do you need to have a change of mind about that have to do with the change of heart that will lead to a change of behavior that you say, God, I'm on, I got sackcloth on, I'm sitting on ashes.

God, if I could have solved this, I would have solved it way earlier than now. I'm done. I'm broken. Hey, whatever it takes. If I need to go to counseling, I'll go to counseling.

If I need to get into 12 step group, I'll get into 12 step group. If I need to apologize to my boss, I apologize. If I need to get a new set of friends, if I need to break up with my boyfriend, if I need it, whatever, that's repentance. Believing in God's goodness is at the core of every change you'll ever make that stops tweaking the little things in your life and causes you to shift, to shift the alignment of your, your thoughts, your heart, and your life. The second lesson is from Jonah. From Jonah, we learn extending God's mercy requires repentance and proclamation. He repented and then he proclaimed.

He verbally said, and I'm not sure he said it with a lot of heart, in 40 days there's judgment. And this great merciful God, in fact, Jonah believes that God is so merciful. The reason he didn't want to go is he was afraid that if he shared about the great God, the creator, that people actually might respond. And if they responded that God is so merciful, he would forgive them. And he didn't want them forgiven.

He wanted them to burn. But what we learned from him is that God's mercy requires that we repent and then we proclaim the apostle Paul put it this way, for I am not and put a box around the word ashamed. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it. The gospel is the dunamis is the word.

We get our word dynamite. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who circle the word believes there's an ocean of grace. There's thirsty people. They need to know someone has to proclaim there's an ocean of grace. There's forgiveness. There's love. There's a king. There's a different way to live.

But you have to receive it. You have to believe to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And one of my favorite verses in all the Bible is the power of God's word. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I don't even understand it. There is something that you if you get the words of this book inspired by God into your head and they make it into your heart, it will remap your brain. It will change your life.

It's powerful. It'll reveal things to you. I remember when I didn't grow up reading the Bible and I remember the very first Bible I had and I remember I put it under my pillow. I'd been to a camp where I heard the gospel and I trusted Christ when I was 18 and I'd read it at night and read it in the morning that I hid it under my pillow. I don't think my parents would have been mad but it was the era of the Jesus freaks and I didn't want them to think I was a Jesus freak. But I remember reading it and thinking, how could anybody know these things about me?

I remember just reading at night. I read in the morning and two weeks later I just stopped miraculously cussing and I had a terrible, terrible mouth because out of my insecurity and my wife thinks I'm tall but to me tall 6'8 and above is tall and I'm short and middle sizes you know 6'4, 6'5, 6'6 because that was my those were all my friends basketball and I thought I'm this skinny little shrimpy and so I just had my mouth just I just tried to power up all the time and God as I read his word he just I didn't know how it worked it just went doesn't always happen that way but here's the principle the power is in the message not the messenger. Some of you are so concerned about sharing with someone or talking with someone or letting them know that you know if you knew for sure someone was getting cancer a year from now that it will be lethal and if they don't get treatment they will die a year from now are you going to go well gosh I don't want to really turn them off I'd rather have them die. Now we all have had people share things about Jesus in ways that are so repulsive and so come on strong and so judgmental and so just so unlike Jesus but I think that pendulum has gotten so far that somehow we've forgotten if if they don't get a warning if they don't know about the new king if they don't know about the new life you being nice to him is nice I mean that's a that's a really really important start but you know just like man we've we've become great friends 11 months and 29 days I just wish I would have told you about the antidote because you died of cancer God wants better for us I remember learning this the very hard way and I was a basketball coach at the time and there was a guy who lived next door who was like the big man on campus and I graduated from school a year or two and I was coaching and leading a little college ministry and I'd go up and he was a swimmer like all-american swimmer but he liked basketball and I got to know him and he was like you know the most popular powerful you know that you know that person let me say this is there anyone in your life that intimidate you like they're either like super smart super beautiful super powerful or super something that you just think you know like I just I'm really intimidated by him so I was obviously very intimidated by this guy and he was living with his girlfriend right next door and off campus and so I'm doing Bible studies on campus with different guys and you know boy watching you know young men come to know the Lord it was really really exciting and I'll never forget he walked across the yard one day and said hey you chip yeah yeah he said what's with you man I said what do you mean what's with me why didn't you tell me I said tell you what he goes you're kidding me like aren't you the guy that's doing the Bible studies and aren't you kind of leading this little ministry and our basketball coach I said yeah so why didn't you tell me I said tell you what about Jesus I said why he said well you know my my my girlfriend's folks are really old school and they go to church and they have no idea we're living together and you know we're getting kind of serious and so we went to to visit them in separate bedrooms in the whole bed and and then like you know they had to get up and we went to this little white church with some little funky country preacher with the twang and everything and and he said that the Jesus loves you and he's died for your sin and you need to repent and come to Jesus and he goes you know how he said it and it really really turned me off but I sat there and I realized I'd never heard that in my life and I just found myself kneeling at the front of that little white country church and I asked Christ to come in my life and something big changed because the moment we got back I turned to my girlfriend said I got to sleep on the couch now and she said why he said because I'm a follower of Jesus now and you can't have it both ways he said so let me just ask you why didn't you tell me and I can't remember what excuse I made today I would say because I'm a wimpy ashamed of the gospel insecure marshmallow the Christian I don't know if I'd say it like that you know I didn't say anything in my wildest dreams I never dreamed that guy would be open to Jesus let alone from a country preacher who didn't say it nearly as culturally relevant as me Lord would you help us to love our enemies the way that Jonah loved his enemies very imperfectly and still you used him I ask that you give us courage and boldness to not be ashamed of your gospel and Lord we don't need to be able to answer all the questions the powers in the gospel God would you give us the grace to stop tweaking our life and shift for our good and for your glory Chip will be right back with his application for his talk declaring the message which is from our series you were made for more facing the Jonah in all of us so what do you know about the story of Jonah maybe you remember something about a big fish a violent storm and an evil city named Nineveh well in this new 10-part series chip and his son Ryan share that there's actually a lot more to this familiar Bible adventure they'll unpack what Jonah's life teaches us about handling adversity God's love for all people and how we can shift our lives to the more we were created for if you've missed any part of this series or want to share it with a friend let me encourage you to check out the chip and grow map well chips with me in studio now and chip you ended your message today with a call for us to boldly share Christ with others and you know I can't help but think there may be some older Christians out there that feel like they don't have much to offer what would you say to them well Dave I think that's true and I think it's a lie those in my generation or some a little bit older can feel like I'm rusty or my skills are outdated or you know I've done my time you know I'm 40 56 years old and I'm going to leave it to the next generation the fact of the matter is God has a different purpose for every person in every season and I'm going to ask you as someone maybe in midlife or beyond to really think about the wisdom the advice the feedback the experience the person you could be in the body of Christ you see you're innately wired by God with gifts and experiences that he wants to use and he wants to use now the real question is do you know what they are and how to use them well here Living on the Edge we've created a brand new resource called the real you it's an online questionnaire designed to provide insight into how God wired you this is more than spiritual gift test you identify the patterns in which you think what motivates you and why teams need someone just like you it'll take about 20 minutes to complete and it won't cost you a thing then based on your responses the real you will offer suggestions about how you can practically live out God's purpose for your life whether that's at home in the office at church or in your community as a Living on the Edge partner we want you to be the first to access this resource head over to the real you dot org to learn more that's the real you dot org most Christians don't know how to leverage their God given wiring and experiences for the kingdom we want to change that thanks chip well as you can tell we are really excited about this new resource we hope the real you will help you not only discover who God made you to be but how he made you to think act and live as chip said you can sign up for this free assessment by going to the real you dot org or if it's easier text the word real to 7 41 41 that's the word real r e a l to 7 41 41 app listeners tap special offers well chip before we go let's get to that application we promised thanks so much Dave and as we wrap up today's program let me leave you with a final challenge be bold for Jesus the fact of the matter is is that when we stand for Jesus when we're willing to enter the conversation knowing that it's not politically correct do it lovingly do it winsomely but do it I look back and I just never dreamed that that super cool guy that I didn't share Jesus with they would ever be open I have learned over and over and over that God is working in people's lives some of the people that you think there's no way my boss I mean there's no way my cousin I mean there's no way my neighbor there's no way that person you know in the corner at the coffee shop who grumbles at everyone here's what I want you to know God is at work he's moving people he's drawing people you don't know their hurts you don't know their needs be bold and let me give you a game plan that I think will really help you the game plan is just the word bless the B is bless them just do something kind for the people that you want to share with L is listen just ask questions I was on a plane recently and I thought a prompting from God to share Jesus with this lady and I couldn't figure out how to get the conversation going and I just sensed he loved her he wanted me to share and and I chickened out twice and then finally I just listened I said would you tell me about your journey I would really love to hear kind of where you live where you're coming from and a little bit about your family that opened the door for her to share I mean for the next 20 30 minutes and at the end she ended up asking me could you help me find someone to officiate my son's wedding she opened up her heart but it came through listening and then after you listen then encourage how do you say or do something that helps them in their life it doesn't have to be spiritual at all and then the S is for share share about what God has done in your life and then share who Jesus is and how they can have eternal life and don't worry if you don't get it all right the power is in the message not the messenger God will use your testimony let's share it together thanks chip well in case you missed some of the points chip just reviewed they're pulled straight from his message notes which is a tool available for every program chips notes include his outline all of the scripture references and lots of fill ins to help you remember what you're learning there are a quick download at Living on the Edge org under the broadcasts tab app listeners just tap fill in notes until next time this is Dave Drew he's saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge