Do you know someone that used to really walk with God, but right now they have drifted away and you're concerned that you don't know what to do? Stay with me. That's what we're going to talk about today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship ministry devoted to helping Christians worldwide live out their faith for the glory of God and the benefit of all people. Thanks for listening today as we're nearing the end of our series Does God Still Heal? So far our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, has examined what the Bible says about physical and emotional healing. If you want to catch up on these thought-provoking messages, you can easily do that through the Chip Ingram app or at livingontheedge.org. Chip will be back in James Chapter 5 for these last two programs, unpacking what it looks like to experience spiritual healing.
He has a lot to teach us, so grab your Bible and notes and let's dive right into this vital topic. Well when you think about life, I can tell you two or three things. Number one, planes veer off course, even with high technology. You may remember when a major airline of which I will not name, two pilots, a pilot and a co-pilot, were on their iPads or checking Facebook or checking their email and their autopilot went right past the city, about a half hour or so, and they found themselves completely off course, had to turn around and also lost their job. Not only do planes get off course, but satellites over time drop out of orbit.
Cars occasionally, even with, I have a GPS that will tell me to turn on roads that don't exist. And just like planes and cars and satellites drift and get off course, so do Christians. The thing about it is that when you are in the process of getting off course, and when I am in the process of getting off course, the last person to know it will be you.
It's just the human heart. Jeremiah would say, the heart is deceitful above all else, and who can understand it? I wish I didn't have a good testimony in this arena, but unfortunately in various seasons of my Christian life, I've drifted a little, and sometimes I've drifted a lot.
And I can tell you the most miserable people, at least from personal experience in all the world, are people who have a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and little by little begin to live in ways that you know are not right. And it starts off in little things. It starts off in very small compromises, and then you begin to drift and drift and drift, and then there's guilt, and then there's shame, and there's issues, and then pretty soon you don't feel like you're worthy to come back. And then we play all kind of games, like God is really mad at me, so I can't talk with him, or I've embarrassed myself. And the drift continues and we get farther and farther and farther away from God. Boy, I have been there early in my Christian life especially.
And still, I just pick it up a lot quicker, and I know the symptoms, and I kind of make the U-turns more quickly now. But no one is exempt. I've been doing what I've been doing as a pastor for over 30 years, and I can tell you people whose lives are amazing, who have decades under their belt of faithfulness to God. I can tell you about pastors and missionaries and people that we would all think there is no way that they could ever begin to drift away from God. And I can tell you that I have met people that I never dreamed that could happen to, who are living far, far, far away from anything they know. There's a verse in Proverbs that has become near and dear to my heart, not because I like it, but simply because it's true. It says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. What I want you to know for you, or we're going to talk about, spiritual healing, or what I call it is operation restoration. How do you draw people back to God that really know God, that are followers of Jesus, but something has happened and they're drifting or have drifted away? And what I want you to know is when they're drifting, whether it's us or someone else, it seems right. When you begin to talk with, no, no, no, I'm okay. Hey, nothing's wrong. Hey, you know what? We just, we had some family in and you know, I haven't been to church in two or three months, but you know, I had to travel a little bit.
My daughter's on the traveling team and well, you know what? Yeah, I'm on, we're accountability partners and yeah, I haven't called. I haven't showed up, but hey, we're great, man. We're, there's no problem here. And then if you're real close friends and you kind of notice some things and they won't make direct eye contact and, and there's sort of denial that happens and then little by little by little, it just seems right. There isn't a problem. And people find themselves on the other side of a fence where God is over here and they're over here and they find themselves where families are breaking up and they find themselves back in, I remember a good and close friend had 21 years of sobriety and returned to a meth addiction.
After 21 years, no one is exempt. Notice the question, so what do you do when someone you know fails morally, turns away from Christ, desserts their spouse, or shows signs of spiritual drifting? What I would like you to do before you turn the page and jump into the passage, lean back just a little bit, okay? On a scale of one to ten, your life is moving more closely and drawing nearer to God or your life is drifting slightly or fast away from God.
Where would you plot yourself? Second question, what one person would come to mind that you know is a genuine follower of Christ that you sense they're really not walking with the Lord, they're beginning to drift? And if no one comes to mind, would you pray one of those little prayers in your mind right now and say, God, if there's someone, would you bring them to my mind right now?
Because what you're going to get equipped with in just a few moments is a very specific way that God wants to use you to draw them back to Christ. There's a guy named Bob and a guy named Jerry that a lot of my early Christian life I didn't like and I'm standing here because Bob and Jerry. I was involved in a relationship that was unhealthy, that was ungodly and moving in a bad direction and Jerry came and sat down with me eyeball to eyeball and called me on it and I was so defensive, told him, who do you think you are, don't tell me how to run my life and when he walked out the door what I knew was he was 100% right. And after some private time with God and a few more buckets of guilt and shame, I realized, you know what, I got to change.
So where are you and have you thought of someone? With that, open your notes if you will and let's look at what the Bible teaches about drawing people back when we wander because we all do. James 5 verse 19, he says, my brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this, or this you must know, it's a little bit more emphatic in the Greek than it is here, whoever turns a sinner from the air of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. I want you to circle the word if, I want you to put a box around the word wander, I want you to put a circle around the word turns a sinner and then put a box around the word death.
Very straightforward passage, it says there's a problem and then it gives the solution. The problem is notice if, notice one of you, this is written to Christians, brothers, notice there's a tender heart, no one's mad at anyone, it's the apostle early on, there's persecution, there's difficulty, a lot of Christians are getting killed for being Christians, there's a lot of peer pressure, a lot of these early Jews when they would follow Jesus, their families would disown them, that meant they didn't have a business to fall back on or relationships and in the midst of all this, my brothers, if anyone among you, notice what, drifts or wanders from the truth. The word wander, you know what word we get in English?
The word planet. In the ancient world you would see the stars and the constellations of course would move across the sky but there would be these stars that just seemed to wander around, well they were planets and so over time the word came to mean something that was moving around and early on, you know they were trying to figure out what's the course, all the stars seemed to be very very stable but planets are moving and so he says if you know one of your brothers or one of your sisters who wanders and then it's a very interesting construction, the idea of this is that you might wander because you make a willful choice but it's a construction in which you may be wandering and not even know it. It's like you're unconsciously being wooed or seduced and you don't even know it, it's a picture of in the ancient times the word is used of like if a little sheep is nibbling on some grass and all the other sheep and the shepherd are there and you know then you nibble over here and then you nibble a little bit more over here and you nibble over here and you weren't trying to do anything wrong but just the grass was so good and so you nibble over here and then the sheep looks up and the sheep are gone and the shepherd's gone. That's how it happens sometimes and so you wander away from the truth of God's word, you wander away from the truth of the life in the body, you wander away from the truth of God speaking to your heart and prompting you, you wander away from your loyalty and your relationship with Jesus and so he says if that should happen here's the solution, someone should bring him back. If we're aware we're to take the initiative and then he talks about if a sinner turns from the air of his way you'll save him from death and we'll talk about what that means but that word turn is used both of believers and unbelievers. When Jesus was speaking to Peter and Peter said I'll die with you, remember? And Jesus said actually you're going to deny me three times before we hear the rooster cry and then in the scenario he says Satan is seeking to sift you but Peter I've prayed for you and after you blow it and turn, this is this word, go back and help your brothers and so the word is used of a believer who's straight away from God or an unbeliever. It's the idea regardless of who it's addressed to of someone who's going in a direction and you help them do a 180 degree turn in their life and so the problem is wandering from the truth, the solution is to bring them back to God. Can I ask you that question one more time? Is there someone that you know in this condition right now?
Who comes to your mind? What's your responsibility from this passage? I had a opportunity to talk with a young gal who was involved in ministry in this area a number of months ago and a long, long, long conversation and she is a person that fits this perfectly and as I prayed, I didn't know her that well but she was involved in ministry, knew a lot of people in this area and literally is living in a lifestyle that she would tell everyone was the opposite of everything that she believes now and then it's can we just get real about this, why this is hard? Like I want everyone to return, I just don't want to be the one to confront them, right? Don't look at me like that, you know, because see what I've got is she came to church, we had a little bit of a connection, I jotted her a note, I gave her a book, she promised that she would read it, she never got back to me, I waited and made a follow-up call, hey have you read it, how are you doing, you know, I waited another couple three weeks, I did another follow-up and then it was kind of like because I'm a guy and she's a woman I thought, you know, I think my time is done here, like Teresa you go see her or something but you know I had that little prompting as I was praying about this and thought I need to call and find out how she's doing, who do you need to call and find out how they're doing because people are wandering and when they do it causes death and the death he's talking about here is it can be physical death but death in scripture is separation from God, remember Adam and Eve in the garden in the day that you eat of the fruit you'll surely die, right, they had to eat, well they didn't physically die but they were then separated from God, we'll talk a little bit more about what it means in this passage. Now let's talk about sort of how to go about this because my experience is there's a couple extremes, you're thinking about this person that needs to be drawn back to God and one extreme is many of you sitting here going whoa whoa whoa wait a second, like who am I to judge right, you know you can see they're kind of flirting or you can see that you think they've returned to an addiction but you're not sure or you know you haven't seen them around in a while but you know how do you graciously bring up and by the way judge not lest you be judged right, you know you'll quote to me Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 and 2 and you know we're not to judge other people in fact when you go to them and you say hey I'm concerned about you and as I said to someone very close in our family who had really really drifted and I opened the conversation with I just want you to know I'm really concerned about your soul and what I got back was some cuss words telling me I don't need you thinking about my soul which told me that was a little awkward you know and hard and it was kind of like who are you but if you would keep reading in Matthew 7 on to verse 3 it would say right it's going to go on and say like who are you right to get the speck out of your brother's eye and then we quote that but keep reading because what it goes on to say not don't confront not don't judge not don't evaluate one another's lives out of the heart of love but first take the log out of your eye so that you can what take the speck out of your brother's see we were made as a body to be like an immune system to help one another we're all going to drift we just want to part of the reason why we have so many small groups is you know I need a group of people that I mean we all look good on the outside right and we can all do the general stuff oh I love God you love God quote a verse you know I'm reading the Bible son you can go through all the external activity and your heart be really moving far away from God and the only way that you really close is when you're honest with one another with vulnerable relationships you're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and Chip will be right back to finish his talk but quickly are you aware there's a spiritual battle happening right now now that's not meant to scare you but rather to motivate you stick around after the program as Chip talks about an effective tool we have that will prepare and equip you to fight back against our enemy you don't want to miss it but for now let's get back to our series does God still heal and so what I want you to what I want you to know is that you're not judging someone now for some you got to really ask what's my motive but we're not judging people when we have a genuine concern and ask them in a gentle way and we're going to learn exactly how to do it later but ask them in a gentle way how are you really doing and I'm concerned about you because we actually have a responsibility to hold one another up and bear one another's burdens so one extreme is I'm not going to do this because I don't want to judge anyone and then the other extreme is there's some people in every church that feel like they're sort of God the Holy Spirit and they have this badge called junior Holy Spirit and they love to do it and they have you know whatever however many commandments there are in the Bible they have like a hundred more and whatever might be kind of gray and some people believe this and some people believe that and it's an issue of conscience there's no like those they've got down what everyone should be and what they should do and shouldn't do and they blast you right what's wrong with you you say you're a Christian and you're doing that and you're doing that and I can't believe and you know and you just it's one of those people that you think that's why I almost didn't become a Christian very very legalistic very very judgmental very very harsh and they sort of have this personal responsibility to bash people we so don't want to come off like that we let people drift we're so afraid that someone's going to view us like that we let people we love drift away from God and here's the thing for some people you're the greatest Christian they know you have the greatest trust if you don't say something if you don't intervene no one will it's just like a picture of watching a person float downstream and there's by the way and what this passage says is there is a there's a waterfalls coming a lot like Niagara and it's long and it's hard and it's deep and and they're floating here and it might be you know not a big problem consequences are moderate here here they just lost their marriage they just turn their kids off they're just back in an addiction they will actually may lose their life and when we see that God says I want you to intervene if you see a brother or sister wondering you draw them back and when you do you save them from separation from God and it covers a multitude of sins the question I would say is how do you do that and James doesn't say does he he just says do it and so I'd like to suggest there's a two-part strategy that we get from the context of this passage but I think even more from a very parallel passage that teaches us exactly how to do it God's two-part strategy for restoration is number one pray for them and I mean I know you hear you pray I mean really pray jot in your notes Proverbs 21 1 the fact of the matter is the reason I've drifted away from God the reason anyone drifts away from God is your heart gets hard your heart gets hard and pretty soon you don't hear his voice and you have a responsibility and I have a responsibility to love them to care for them to show compassion to speak words of life to speak words of accountability or even rebuke them in the right way but you know words just can bounce off the only one that can change your heart is who is God Proverbs 21 1 says the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord he turns it whatever way he wishes so you need to see yourself as I've talked I've shared like with this gal that I'm thinking about I today I said okay God who knows all things and is all-powerful I'm sending up a prayer to you I pray God you'll turn her heart back to you I pray specifically God would you make her life miserable in her current state of affairs would you cause the sin that she or some other person is involved in to have no pleasure anymore God would you take the velvet vice of your love and however hard and I'm asking you to be gentle but however hard you need to do this to bring this person to see this is not the lifestyle apart from you Lord will you do that some of us have prayed that for our children during big times of their rebellion and it's hard because you beg oh God please don't be be gentle but whatever it takes a life of a believer apart from God moving in the opposite direction is a very dangerous place to be I remember maybe the first time I learned to pray like this I was a young pastor and I just moved from my very first pastorate to California many many years ago and I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought oh wow what's going on in a digital clock to owe something and just like wide awake and thought wow and so I got up and you know I read a little bit and and then I shut my eyes I prayed and then I did what I need to do more often then I just shut up and I said Lord I don't know why you got me up and maybe it's nothing special but if so would you please bring it to my mind and honestly I'd like to get back to bed and so whatever you want me to do would you let's let's let's take care of it and as I sat quietly brought four people very specifically to mine and whispered not an audible voice I want you to write him a letter and I want you to tell them just tell them the impact they've had in your life and how just the quality of their life and what I'm okay so I you know jotted them each a note and and one I was really burdened for and and so I thought you know that message of a couple weeks ago for whatever reason I think that'd be great for this guy so when in the office next day took my little envelopes and in that message two days later I was talking to a mutual friend that knew the situation where I came from and said did you hear about so-and-so I said hear what he's he's not walking with the Lord anymore oh no no yeah are you kidding me no no no I mean he's like way way I mean he's I said no I mean that guy I mean he was a leader in the church this is how he helped me help all my kids he led part of the youth group he was man I know it was a really hard time and kind of I think his wife left him or something really bad happened but he's got great he's what and then I I thought wow I just wrote him a letter two days ago outlining his spiritual history and how God has amazingly used his lives over the years and then I thought of the the message I sent I thought wow we and and then here's the point God so loves and so cares about every single person who's wandered and drifting away from him in this case he went all the way to California to wake up one guy who didn't want to get up brought a name told him what to do and what message to send him because he cared so much about another guy states far away when you pray God can do that God can change people's hearts this is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message spiritual healing operation restoration from our series does God still heal Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about do you know someone fighting a lifelong disease battling depression or wrestling with their faith in this insightful series chip tackles the question that haunts many is there real hope for those suffering physically emotionally and spiritually journey with chip through James chapter 5 as he unravels the true meaning of healing and what it looks like in our modern world you'll also discover prayers influential role in navigating life's most difficult trials you're not going to want to miss a single program of this meaningful teaching well our Bible teacher chip Ingram is back with me and chip you know spiritual warfare and opposition is a subject many Christians are uncomfortable with or maybe even afraid of and while evil is an unfortunate part of our world what does spiritual warfare look like in the day-to-day lives of most believers could you set the record straight for us absolutely Dave I believe much of spiritual warfare the battle is in our minds and so out of the blue you have an irrational fear I've at times I was convinced in my mind that one of my kids was going to be in a car wreck or something or I don't mean like clinical depression or emotional issues but I have literally had a wonderful day and everything's going great and right before I spoke or was going to do evangelism or something like a black curtain came down and I would just be totally depressed and I recognize oh it's spiritual warfare and I needed to know how to respond to that sometimes when people are praying and or thoughts of condemnation you're a terrible person all of those things are the enemy's means to get us to get down on ourself and not want to draw near to God these cards allow people to recognize those things quickly have a promise from God's Word and then know what to do in that moment to break through that spiritual warfare and so I encourage people get those cards put them on your nightstand I do about you know three or four a night and review them in such a way that God will renew their mind and prepare them to put on the spiritual armor each and every day good word ship well if you want to get your hands on our invisible war scripture cards visit Living on the Edge dot org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 this powerful resource will help you recognize the tactics of our enemy embrace the security Christ offers and effectively wield God's Word again for complete details about these invisible war scripture cards go to Living on the Edge dot org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 app listeners tap special offers with that here again is chip just before we wrap up today's program I want you to just sort of privately ask the Holy Spirit if he hasn't already Lord who would you want to bring to my mind who's in my relational network or or who's someone that as I was listening to this message maybe it's just the beginning of a drift or maybe it's someone who's drifted so far away I just thought to myself there's probably no hope but who is it that you want to bring to my mind if our job as fellow believers if our calling is to rescue and restore these people Lord would you show me one name have you got it now here's what I want you to do you don't need to call them you don't need to text them you don't need to come up with the plan and our next broadcast I'm gonna talk about some very specific ways about how to restore someone who's drifted or really walked away from the Lord but here's what I want you to do would you be wanting to to pray for them I mean really pray for them and not just a quickie prayer in the car or not just all the you know you stop listening to this and you throw up one but would you be willing to maybe write that person's name down maybe with no note in case someone sees it and stick that in your Bible or put it on the seat of your car in the mirror in the bathroom and just say Lord you know for the next seven or eight days I'm just going to ask you to be moving in this person's heart I'm going to ask that you'll speak to them that you'll bring good people into their life and and just do that and then in our next broadcast I'll I'll talk about maybe some very loving and kind action steps about how you can help them but but I think it's so important that let's trust that God's going to be at work so that when you take a step you'll know for sure that God's already been working all of us have strayed I can remember when I was really drifting away from the Lord and someone cared enough to in a loving way confront me and it changed the whole direction of my life that's God's plan for someone in your relational network as well wow a compelling challenge for us to act on chip thanks as we wrap up this program Living on the Edge depends on listeners like you to help us continue encouraging Christians to live like Christians so would you consider becoming a monthly partner to help others benefit from this ministry now you can set up a recurring donation at Living on the Edge dot org or by calling us at triple eight three three three six zero zero three that's triple eight three three three six zero zero three or visit Living on the Edge dot o-r-g app listeners tap donate and thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do we'll listen to next time as chip wraps up his series does God still heal until then this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.
