I'm often asked, how do I know God's will or how do I discover God's calling on my life? I love those conversations, and today we're going to explore that together. 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 teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, in just a minute, we'll wrap up our newest series we've called BIO, Three Essential Practices to Becoming More Like Jesus. We hope Chip's teaching has challenged you to adopt these habits into your faith journey.
To help others learn about the power of living out BIO, share this series through the Chip Ingram app or by downloading the MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge.org. Well, if you have a Bible, go now to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning in verse 14 for part two of his talk, practice number three, Be on Mission, 24-7. This is his motivation. For the love of Christ compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And so his mission then, verse 15, he died for all, that those of us who live, notice this, listen to the servanthood, listen to the focus, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him, Jesus, who died for them and was raised again. Do you see the flip?
Do you see the mindset? And then Paul talks about because of that, his new perspective. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here. And he says, now that I have this love and I have this new mission, I don't see people the same way.
And literally the word is according to the flesh. I don't see who's famous. I don't see who's rich. I don't see who's powerful. I don't see what they drive.
I don't see external stuff. I see people that are in need and their new creations. And the old things have passed away. And I love the tense of the verb, all things, listen carefully, are becoming.
It's a process, are becoming new. And then the apostle Paul talks about a role that God has given to him and to you and to me. All this is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. But what is that? That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.
I love this. Not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ ambassadors.
If you happen to have downloaded the notes, circle that. We are therefore Christ ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. Listen to this. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. And then here's the theology behind it. God made him Jesus who had no sin to be sinned, literally to be the sin bearer for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is just an amazing thing. God poured out his just wrath in a moment of time on the Son of God. And that's why he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For in that moment he took your sin and my sin and the sins of the whole world.
And so salvation is available to whosoever would trust and believe what Christ has done and receive him and then follow him. And then here's the interesting thing. You're an ambassador and I'm an ambassador. Well, what's an ambassador? That's someone who represents someone else or another country. I mean, the ambassador from Spain. He's from Spain.
They have a little consulate here in America and he represents the interests of Spain, the message of Spain here in the US. Your citizenship is in heaven. My citizenship is in heaven. We represent Jesus and his heart and his concern, we represent him.
But it gets more exciting. He actually has given you and me a very unique calling. Yes, we do it as a servant.
Yes, we do it in daily life. But there's actually a unique set of good works, a way, a plan, a window, if you will, that God wants to uniquely use you and use me. It's found in Ephesians 2 10. After learning that our salvation is a free gift of God, the apostle writes in Ephesians 2 10, for we are his workmanship, literally his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus, for what? For good works which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.
Here's the truth. We have the unspeakable privilege and the unique calling as God's representatives to implore everyone to be reconciled to God. You don't have to have great communication skills.
You don't have to have some big heavy theological training. You just need to live your life in your world in the footsteps of Jesus. You need to come before God daily and let him shape who you are. You need to do life in community, invite other people into that community. And then at your job and where you work and if you happen to work out, where you get coffee, where you go to the grocery store, you're an ambassador.
You represent him. And then you have this unique calling. God prepared a special good work for each of us to fulfill through our talents and our spiritual gifts. Let me take just a minute to sort of unpack how that happened in my life because I didn't grow up in the church.
I'd never opened the Bible until I was 18. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life other than I knew I was in the Bible and I was in community and my purpose was my passion. My passion was I played basketball in college and I played overseas in Australia and countries throughout South America. And I just thought, I'm going to be a major college basketball coach. I mean, when I got done with college, I did not want any more school, but I went back to get my master's degree so I could teach at college, so I could coach at college. And I've always had kind of big ambitions. You know, some of them not so good, but one was I wanted Bobby Knight's job. I mean, I wanted to be a major college coach at the D1 level, winning a lot of games and doing Bible studies with my players like I did when I coached high school. And so during the summer, I got invited to play on a basketball team and we toured every country in South America.
We played all the Olympic teams, all the selection teams. At halftime, we got to share Christ, share our testimonies. And then afterwards, we would invite people down and hundreds would come down and we'd share Christ for about an hour or so and then go to dinner with the other team and build a relationship.
And then we went from city to city to city to city. Well, we were in Recife and we had a missionary with us and he had some sense of what maybe God's plans are for people, really sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And he would watch me, you know, read my Bible in the morning and we had Bible studies as a team. And so we're playing in this big outdoor arena, about 10,000 people, and I happened to be the guy. I shared my testimony that night. And then after the game, you know, we said, if you want to come and talk. Well, he grabbed my arm, took the microphone, put it in my hand and said, preach.
What? He said, just preach on what you were reading this morning. And I happened to, coincidence, of course, I read Psalm 19 where it talks about the heavens declared the glory of God. And so I looked up and it was a really starry night and these people were filing out and a few people were filing down to talk.
And I don't know where this came from. I said, look, look up. Do you see those stars?
Do you know the one who created those? Come down right now. I'll introduce you to the creator of the one that made you.
And I'm thinking, what in the world am I doing? And people started coming down. I mean, a bunch of people. He goes, give them the gospel. I said, how?
He goes, just like Billy Graham. So anyway, to make a very long story short, I shared the gospel. I gave an invitation.
I'm not sure. 50, 60 people, maybe more, came to know Jesus that night. I'm thinking to myself, I'm a basketball coach. And then I went home and I don't know, my pastor or something heard about this or that and said, hey, I'm going to be out of town.
Would you fill in? And I said, oh no, I could never preach. And so then he heard that I could share because he said, you know, you're sharing with those college students. The ministry had really grown. Here's all I want you to get. You may have no idea what God has planned for you and not at all that you need to become a pastor or an evangelist. All I'm saying is this, getting up every day and having a purpose, getting up every day with a sense that I am called to do this. In fact, some of the biggest struggles in my life, some of the biggest wounds, some of the things that were most difficult to go through and what I experienced with an alcoholic family are the very things that have equipped me to do what I'm doing right now. I understand people. I read people. I understand what it's like to feel lonely and depressed and anxious.
I know what it's like to walk on your tiptoes because someone might explode with anger. And God gave me a heart for people that are hurting. Well, that came out of how God allowed me to live in a family.
And by God's grace, my dad became a Christian later in life. You have a calling. You're an ambassador. We're on mission.
But here's the deal. This mission, this role, it doesn't happen like in the lilies of the field where we just tiptoe around, isn't life wonderful? You are in the middle of a war. And if the enemy can get you distracted or get you focused just on yourself or on your success or your stuff like we all do, here's what the Scripture says about this battle.
It's in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through about 20. He's equipped you in the midst of the challenges of being on mission to win the battle. Just listen to what you have available to you. Finally, he says, be strong in the Lord, not in yourself, but in the Lord and the strength of his might. Well, what should you do? Put on the full armor of God. Well, why? So that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. The word we get is strategies.
Well, why? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It's not a political party. It's not a boss. It's not a supervisor.
It's not those other people. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. There's good angels and there's bad angels. And he's saying these are the bad angels and you're in a battle. And so he goes on verse 18, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. So he's asking him for prayer. You're in a battle, but notice why. Look at verse 19, and pray on my behalf that the utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
Here's the apostle Paul talking to a church that he loves and saying, you guys, you know what? You may think I've got it all together. I'm in a battle and you're in a battle.
I need you to pray for me so that what comes out of my mouth, I'll be bold to do what God wants me to do and say what he wants me to say. I mean, I'm like you. I've been on so many planes at times and thought a little prompting to say something. I've chickened out, okay? I mean, you think people like us that maybe teach publicly or maybe write a book or two here or there or you're a pastor or some missionary. You think we do it all right all the time?
Are you kidding? We all chicken out at times. So we pray.
We realize we're in a battle. Verse 20 says, for I am, are you ready? For I am an ambassador in chains that is proclaiming that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. He says, I'm an ambassador of Christ, but I'm in chains.
I need you to pray for me because I'm going to come before some really important people and I don't want to chicken out. I want to be faithful. I want to boldly declare what God wants me to declare.
Are you starting to get it? We're on mission 24-7. It starts with the servant's mindset.
We realize that Jesus modeled it and Jesus taught it. He gave us a mandate. He gave us a message and he said, it's going to happen. I'm going to honor my word. My word's powerful. It's the power of God to salvation. That's the gospel. Romans chapter 1 verse 16. And then he says, you're going to be in a battle and it's going to be very challenging. And here's the truth. We are battling, listen so very carefully, for the souls of men and women and children in this life and the next. This isn't about just being a good Christian. This isn't just like obeying. There are people that God loves that he's prepared.
The harvest is white. They may act like they're completely disinterested, but they're in your network and you are the greatest Christian some people will ever meet. Now for some of you, you're thinking, boy, they're in real trouble.
Well then get them out of trouble. Become a genuine follower who comes before God daily, right? He starts doing life in community and you'd be on mission 24-7 and it's a journey.
Remember, it's a walk and you'll stumble and you'll fall, but you practice. You are the greatest Christian that some people know and God wants to use you. He's equipped you. He's given you a life-changing message. And here's the perspective that we get from this battle. Where prayer prevails, power falls. Sharing the gospel has to be covered with, even the apostle Paul is praying, pray for me with all prayer for all the saints and persevere. And for some of you, your role in this mission may be a lot more behind the scenes than some other people.
I mean, I admire those people. I've got a friend that it doesn't matter where he is. He strikes up a conversation. He shares the gospel.
Then it seems like everyone he talks to is super open. I don't have that, but I can build a relationship and I can care about people and I can tell them my story and you have a story and I can have a meal with them and I can invite them over and I can find out they have a sick kid. I can find out that they don't have enough money for their rent and I can put it in an envelope without a name and jot a little note. God cares about you and stick it under there and take care of them and they figure stuff out.
We can do this. And I just have to tell you, one of the greatest joys in all the world is when the Spirit of God fills you in such a way that your actions or your words actually become a part of changing a person's life forever and ever. And it may start with just a meal or a healed marriage or caring about one of their kids or helping them out as they're struggling maybe working out in the yard. But when you become other-centered and servant-minded and on mission 24-7, I'm telling you there's not enough success or money or anything that compares with the spiritual adrenaline of being used by the Creator of the universe. Let me give you some ways to increase your impact. These are just super practical tips to kind of go on mission and I think they'll be helpful.
The first is take your assignment seriously. Being on mission isn't just for the professionals, evangelists, pastors, missionaries. It's for all of us.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return you to Chip's message in just a minute. But first, let me tell you, God is doing incredible work through this ministry all around the world. And if you'd like to join us, consider partnering with us during our year-end match. Every gift we receive until midnight on December 31 will be matched dollar for dollar. Join us today by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. We appreciate your generosity.
Well, with that, here again is Chip. Next, build relational bridges intentionally. Just start reaching out. I mean, even if you haven't said hi to your neighbors and you've lived next door to each other for 5, 10, 15 years, we live in this little cul-de-sac and literally no one comes outside for anyone. I was embarrassed.
It was like 8 or 9 years. And finally, I just knocked on the door of one of my neighbors and I actually knew kind of something he really liked and I brought him a present. And he looked at me like, what are you doing? I said, you know, I'm kind of embarrassed that we've lived here 8 years and you go into your garage and I go into my garage and we don't really know each other.
And I just wanted to say thanks for being a neighbor. And now that started a relationship. And he comes from another country and he sees what's happening in America. He wants to talk about it. And so we actually schedule coffee and we just go out and talk. And pretty soon he talks about religion.
And now pretty soon he's asking me, now what exactly do you do? And pretty soon I tell him. And pretty soon I'm sharing the gospel. And God's working.
And now I'd love to have a great story that last night he prayed to receive Christ and we're still on the journey. But I'm on mission. I'm trying to be on mission 24-7. Third is demonstrate your concerns specifically. Meet actual specific needs. Meet some needs at work. Meet a need in your neighborhood.
Be very, very specific. And as you meet a need, if they ask why, just tell them your story. God's changed my life and he's just given me a heart to help other people. That's all you need to say.
Believe me, there's a little something that starts to catch in their mind and they'll ask more later. Share the message boldly. The power's in the message.
You don't have to have great skills. But know the gospel and be able to share in four or five or six minutes your testimony. We think of sharing the gospel as these out front extrovert people. For some it's hospitality. That's the way you do it. For others your gift of help says you're helping someone fix their car. For others, you know, you're at work and you're the one who says, hey, I'll take your shift. You know, I know you've got something special happening this weekend.
I'll take your shift as being a servant. There's lots of ways and lots of styles. You don't have to be up front. But as you meet those needs and people ask you about the hope that's in you, then we share the gospel. And then pray for God to work powerfully. You can't not do that. You have to realize God opens people's hearts and minds.
I can't do that and you can't do that. Lord, what's on your heart for me today? Who do you want me to pray for?
Yes, I have some people that are the real regulars, but who? And just a few days ago, it's probably because of a great sermon I heard a couple days ago or so, but God really moved me to go right around my cul-de-sac and pray for each family and ask, God, Lord, would you open their heart? Would you speak to them? And whatever you would allow me to do to be a connection, would you show me what that is?
And then would you give me the boldness and courage to actually follow the prompting that you give me? And then the final suggestion is give your time and money generously. Be that person at work that is like, wow, man, she is so kind. She's so generous. Why does she bring coffee and bagels? You know, why is she willing to trade shifts or take some of the bad jobs?
Wow, I love working with him. We work together. They don't try and take the credit.
If anything, they seem to give me a little bit more credit. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your money.
I mean, sometimes it's going to be people you only meet now and then. I got the habit of I keep cash. I just realized there's people that are cleaning out a bathroom or there's some that are probably from another country and are trying to figure out and they're washing a car at a car wash and you look at their life and you realize how much time does it take to say, you know something, I don't know if you know much about Jesus, but he prompted me to tell you that you matter to him. And you give him $20. Sometimes I speak somewhere and people will give me a gift, you know, like 10 $100 bills and I'll take those and I'll just put them in my briefcase and I'll carry them with me and just certain times I'll just have a prompting, you know, here I want to give you this and you give a person $100 and most of my life I couldn't do that.
I can now. I've seen people in airports that are cleaning stalls with tears run down their eyes say you have no idea what I'm going through right now and that I was longing for hope. God wants to use you. You can be on mission. You're his ambassador.
Yes, there's a battle. You have a supernatural message. It's the message of reconciliation and you are gifted and you're equipped and you can make a difference in your world right where you are. If we're going to follow in the steps of Jesus, we need to learn what he taught and then we need the three essential practices. I want to come before God daily. I want to do life in community weekly and then I want to be on mission 24 seven and as you follow the actual steps and practices of Jesus, you will become more and more like him and as you do that, your light will be shining and men and women will see your good works and they will glorify your father who's in heaven and isn't that what you want, what God wants and what people are in desperate need of.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard. Practice number three be on mission 24 seven is from our series bio three essential practices to becoming more like Jesus. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. It's been said that the 21st century church is thousands of miles wide but only an inch deep, meaning many people identify as Christians but few truly live out a life that honors God. In this new series, Chip took us on a journey through the gospels and revealed the profile of an authentic follower of Christ.
We explored the discipleship path Jesus modeled that was built around three simple yet powerful practices that will help us live out our faith. Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any part of this series at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Well, before we go any further, Chip's here in studio to talk about something that's really critical.
Chip? Thanks, Dave. I'll be right back to share some application from today's message, but let me take a moment and address what we believe and what all the research tells us is the most important issue for the Church of Jesus Christ to address. It's getting back to what Jesus said when he said, make disciples of all people.
Teach them to actually obey all the things that I taught. You know, I read an email this morning, and it was a couple who said, in 2014, we came to know Jesus. We got really excited, and so we started going to church every single week. Then after going to church every single week, we got involved in a group, and we volunteered to help in whatever the church needed.
We did that for like four or five or six or seven years. Then they wrote and said, we got to the point where we felt spiritually starved. We were involved in programs and activities and church attendance, but our soul, we felt like we were wandering. We were asking questions like, what's our purpose, and why are we here, and how does our family and our marriage actually work? Then they tell the story of someone turning them on to Daily Discipleship with Chip, which is our one-on-one mentoring video series that we've developed over the years.
We've had over a quarter of a million people go through it. It's where I meet with people individually through video, but it's focused on one-on-one. They begin to talk about their life change, where they became self-feeders, where they begin to grow, where their life was transformed from the inside out. What I want you to know is that discipleship, following Jesus, is really about life change. It's seeing God for who He is. It's developing some basic habits that we all need to connect with God to do life with other people, discover our gifts, and realize that each one of us has a ministry, not just a church, but everywhere we are, everywhere we go, beginning in our own home. That's been our message, and we've developed tools to help the average person connect with God, do life in community, and actually be used by God at work in their neighborhood.
God is working in tremendous ways. Here's my request. Would you help us disciple God's people? Would you help us create these resources and the technology that can take it to the next generation? That's our dream.
That's our calling, but we can't do it without you. Would you pray about giving during this year-end match, and up to December 31st, every gift you give will be doubled dollar for dollar? There's so much at stake.
God is working greatly. We want to be a part of Him solving the discipleship deficit in America and around the world. Well, if you believe God is calling you to join us in this discipleship mission, right now is a great time to become a financial partner. We're in the middle of our year-end match, which means that every gift we receive until midnight, December 31st, will be matched dollar for dollar. You can support us today by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003.
App listeners, tap donate. From all of us here, thank you in advance for your generosity. Well, Chip, as many of our listeners know, discipleship is a core belief and mission of our ministry, helping Christians live like Christians. So as we close out the series, take a minute, if you would, and explain why this pathway you've walked us through is so vital to becoming more like Jesus. Well, Dave, we believe with all of our hearts that the world changes. Lost people come to Christ when they meet a Christian who actually lives like a Christian. They're not perfect, but when they blow it, they own their stuff. But they're real and they're authentic. Yes, they're surrendered to God. They're separate from the world's values.
They have a sober self-assessment. They're serving in love, and they supernaturally respond to evil with good. And for those that know me, no, I just quoted the five relationships out of Romans 12. But there has to be a practice. There are three essential practices on the pathway to becoming a Romans 12 Christian. Jesus modeled these practices. He taught these practices. And it is impossible to become like Jesus and do what Jesus did apart from these practices.
And so we call them BIO, an acronym, B-I-O, because BIO means life. It's not about religion. It's not about duty. It is about a supernatural life where the life of Christ is birthed in us and then through us and then is expressed in every relationship and circumstance over time. And so we just long for people to learn. You need to come before God daily. You need to do life in community weekly. And you need to be on mission 24-7. And these are practices. Not unlike learning to practice the guitar, practice the piano, practice as an athlete, practice in a skill, practice in developing software. It may not sound quite as mysterious, but it is the very practices of these spiritual disciplines or spiritual formation where the Spirit of God takes the Word of God in the context of community and allows us little by little by little to be transformed, as the scripture says, from glory to glory into the likeness of Christ.
And I dare say, if there's a time in the world where we need loving, holy Christians, it's today. It's not impossible. It's supernatural. And it's available to each one of us. BIO is a lifestyle to embrace. Good word, Chip. Well, if you want to revisit any part of this series or get Chip's message notes to use as you listen again, go to the Chip Ingram app. It's an easy way to get plugged in with our latest broadcasts or to learn more about our helpful resources. We long to see every Christian really living like a Christian, and the tools available through the Chip Ingram app can really help. Check it out today. Well, be sure to join us next time as Chip begins co-teaching a new series alongside his friend, Tim Lundy, called Peace on Earth, Discovering Hope in the Christmas Story. Until then, I'm Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
