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April 9, 2021 6:00 am
Is it possible to become the person you always long to become. I would submit it's not only possible, it's God's will that you become winsome and loving and holding a person of faith and integrity.
The changes from the inside out. And God has literally arranged and designed a very special place in which this reality takes place and today I want to share with you where this special place is and how you can get connected to stay with us. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with shipping Living on the Edges and international discipleship history between the daily Bible to the end of this program. She continues his series.
Yes, you really can change based in Ephesians chapter 4 concepts for learning are so life change will join us for each of these messages you have to step away could always catch up the chip and remapped with that. Let's listen now to Chip's message how to become the person you've always longed to be three start our time in God's word.
I like you to do something a bit unusual and should really lean back what you feel free even if you want to shut your eyes, I'm going to give you three imaginary pictures are very important.
If you can let your mind that whatever helps you begin to picture this in your mind. Imagine driving home after an exhausting and stressful day only to get a SOS voicemail from a not so close friend and immediately experiencing a shift the focus off yourself your stress and what you got to do and you find yourself filled with compassion and energy to meet this person and help him fix a quick supper get back in the car you need him at a coffee shop.
2 1/2 hours of counseling you pull in your driveway at 1135 physically, completely beat, but an energy and peace and a sense that you were a part of the living God. Changing a person's life forever.
As you put your head on the pillow scene number two. Can you imagine hearing of the promotion or a financial windfall in the life of your ex-husband, your ex-wife, the child, the betrayed you, your ex-boss who fired you unfairly, the business partner who ripped you off financially and as you hear of this good thing that happened to that person who betrayed or hurt you before you have time to think. The first thought that comes to your mind is joy and gratitude to God for blessing their life because over a season of time you've so thoroughly forgiven them. But like Jesus said you actually love your enemies, scene number three.
You may have to lean back a little bit deeper this will take a deeper imagination. Imagine hearing the honest conversation of your children and your closest friends as they gathered at your house after your funeral. They can't see you, but you can see them and you can hear and have gone through little lines and grabbed little food that we always have. After people die in there talking about you and your own kids and the people that really know you talk about your loyalty, your integrity, your love that you are in fact one of the greatest Christians that they ever met that someday they may want to be like you and little stories, not those exaggerated kind, people say at funerals.
But the kind when it's unedited and no one's around the little stories of moments with you, many of which you can totally forgot are unaware of where your life.
Your love, your integrity marks their life forever.
You were actually the kind of person that we all long to become. Can you imagine that what each of these three scenarios have in common is there a picture of the miracle of life change what they also have in common is you can't fake them. Those aren't stories of behavior modification cleaning up a few external behaviors through a lot of hard work and discipline. These are super natural works of the spirit of God through the word of God. The community of God's people were the actual life of Christ. Over time, with many ups and many downs created in you a life that we all long for you to talk in the series about how that can become a reality if you will, let's talk about how I can actually happened ordinary regular people like you and me. If you have your Bible open to Ephesians chapter 4, and as you scan Ephesians chapter 4 you remember that the series started with chapters 1, two and three talking about. This is what God is done for you in Christ you been adopted. You have an inheritance's Spirit lives within you. You have and possess eternal life, and in verse one said your to live out this new calling your belief and your behavior. Tell the same story and far from a new list of activities it says it happens in deep other centered sacrificial relationships were by his power.
Your humble, patient, and you bear with the idiosyncrasies and you make every effort and you move into people's lives with the power that you don't possess to love them to maintain the unity of the body.
The bond of peace.
Then in our next session we talk will where you get the kind of power, and we learned that Christ gave gifts to men and two women in the church and where they come from, what does it mean that he ascended, except that he descended into the lower parts of the earth and everything that is true view is true of Christ when he resurrected he gave gifts to men to declare that sin and death and Satan had been defeated and now as we open the text were in chapter 4, verse 11, and he describes some of those gifts. And now is going to give you the design is going to give you the picture of that spiritual cocoon if you will. Where the community of the spirit of God and the word of God with his new supernatural community produces that kind of radical life change. We pick it up in verse 11 and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers is owing his gifted people to the church in the very next word is important might underlie for that's the reason that's the purpose why does he give gifted people to the church for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ in total line to the word saints because that doesn't mean someone's in stained glass that's just a biblical word for a Christian, a believer, someone who the Spirit of God lives in and put a little box around if you would work of service, and right next to it minister we get our word for a minister. So God gives gifted leaders to the church.
They equip and put a circle around the word equip.
It's very important. It was a picture of. If there was a compound fracture. A doctor resets it so it works again is the picture fishermen's nets are broken and they repair them so the nets do what they were supposed to do.
Leaders driven to restore and equip all of us. People for the ministry or work of service, and when we operate together doing what Christ wants us to the notice what occurs and what the ultimate goal is until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. If you would put a line under knowledge. This is an intellectual knowledge in Greek. There's two or three different words for knowledge want to sort of intellectual 2+2 is for another is a relational knowledge. This has to do with knowing someone not knowing about them, and even put little prefix. This is a superpowered intimate knowledge of God. Leaders are given to equip God's people to do the actual ministry until all of us corporately come together and have an intimate knowledge of God into over what mature that's our word telling us telescope is when you fulfill the design that God longs for you. In essence, the goal is to become like Jesus.
The measure of the statute, the fullness of Christ, and he gives a little test will how do you know if you're making progress.
What would be the evidence of a person. This really occurs as the supernatural community of the church works together.
Verse 14. As a result, mentors impact is were no longer to be children, tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine, by trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming number two no longer manipulated by false teachers. You no longer wandering are led astray by people who tell you one thing, but it doesn't line up with Scripture. And so there's a doctrinal stability. There's people that are mature that no, the word of God, but moves from that to a relational dynamic. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him was the head, even Christ.
So there's a level of relationship in the body of Christ were you just don't speak truth and you just got nice and loving but there's this authenticity of caring where even share the hard things you help people grow then talks about participation from whom the whole body. Speaking of the church being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Did you notice this keel awards fitted in joint. The word fitted was in construction. You know, you'll see people that you make a cut here and you make a cut here and you'll line them. That's this word in joint has to do with two things actually touch. He saying that something happens when every single member of the body of Christ is walking in obedience to him by faith and understand your role there's a coming together a loving and a support in the connection and noticed those phrases were each and every every single person matters.
And as we function in that way this thing happens this amazing thing happens you experience God's love through other people, and you get loved by other people, and God uses you to love other people and what did Jesus say Jesus of the whole world will know that the father sent the son, not by the sizes of your church, not by how intellectual you are not the by success of your people, not by how cool or hot or wonderful your music is.
He says the world's gonna know the reality of a God who created the world and sent the second person of the triune God his son to die in people's place and give them new life and want to be with them forever will be, how we love one another what you have in verses 11 through 16 is if you will. God's design. God's actual design for how those who call ourselves followers of Christ relate to one another in such a way that the life that we long for, and the life he destines us for actually becomes a reality. There's three principles and approve, but flawed.
This passage principle number one tells us what leaders are to do. Leaders are gifted to equip God's people for service what leaders do and I don't mean just know quote vocational leaders like pastors but all the leaders of the church. The leaders of the small group leaders job gifted leadership is designed to equip God's people for service when there's hurts compound fractures will hinder their physical or emotional or spiritual leaders help restore those things were people's lives are broken.
Leaders help men those things as one commentator said this word equip has the idea of something being restored to its original usefulness. Leaders equip people help restore many gives for examples of leaders in the early church, and you notice he literally gives the foundation, he says. First, there's apostles were possibly literally means one who is sent with the commission. Jesus had many disciples but he chose 12 apostles.
The qualifications for being apostle is you had to be actually with the risen Christ from his baptism onto the rest of his ministry. Now there's the office of apostle have these 12 and then you have the function of apostle.
These are people that aren't original apostles because there's no one living today that actually right was back when Jesus was resurrected, but this function of starting new things.
The idea of missionaries people start ministries. There's a function of apostleship and after he had the apostles were there's the prophets in the early church didn't have a New Testament so they got revelation from God.
Prophecy primarily is the fourth telling of God's truth. We tend to think of it as foretelling or telling the future, but the foundation wouldn't when there wasn't a New Testament was they got revelation from God. They gave it from the church and then those with prophetic gifts. Today we teach God's word in a culturally relevant way to say this is the truth of God for today from his word. There is no chapter 23 of Revelation.
So there's there's not new truth coming from God. He reveals the truth he's given us. And then after the apostles are sent, and the truth is laid out then you have evangelist. These are people gifted with an extraordinary gift and a winsome this that lead lost people into an understanding of a saving knowledge of Christ and when you're around them. They motivate the rest of us to do the work of an evangelist to really care about people outside of Christ, and once there, sent monsters, truth, and once people come to Christ and pastor teachers. The word pastor literally just means a shepherd. It's someone comes along someone and says I want to help you through the valleys and the ups and downs, and struggles and I want to teach you the truth so that you understand this is how God wants your marriage to work. This is what God says in terms of living a single life. This is how he is instruction about your finances, your dreams are ambition, here's how you deal with these kind of temptation and the goal of apostles and prophets and evangelists, pastors and teachers is to equip God's people for the work of service so that literally we become the body of Christ Jesus when he was on the earth would walk around if someone needed a cup of cold water with his hands he would give him a cup of cold water. They needed food he would write some bread and forever and give them food but today Jesus body is us.
But what you got understand is the role of leaders are to equip by and large the design of God has been shanghaied by the enemy and by our own sort of dysfunctional way that we look at relationships in the average church in America and around the world.
The average size is about 75 200 people over 90% of all the churches in the world are under hundred people, most of them under about 80 because that's if you'd if you turn the model of God upside down to do it. Completely wrong.
That's about how many people one person. If you work like crazy can shepherd and so many of us have grown up in a world where the idea is the pastor is the spiritual person and were the regular people and our job is to come and listen to him and then if we have someone in the hospital we say pastor go visit them in the hospital because their need. Or maybe we have someone who needs to hear about Christ was able pastor you want to come over and share the gospel with one of my friends and so they do everything and can you imagine if if someone came from. Like the Amazon and and I never had seen the design of a car and maybe another parents were doing Bible translation and they came to a a city and in the name of the city would be called backward city and they wanted to learn how to drive a car, and if they got in the car and everyone who drove the car didn't like this and put it in and I will it mean all her head and they would actually either turn their head like this, but they'd always drove the car backwards and the cars always made this funny sound when he got going really fast and people can go very fast coming in at about 20 miles an hour but if that's all you ever saw, and you would always wonder why do the people drive cars. What is your next hurt so much and why do the cars make such funny sounds. No engineers would tell you the car was designed with a big windshield and engine and gears 1 to 3 and forth to go forward.
But if that's all you ever saw you would learn to drive a car like that and think it's normal. That's how most pastors have grown up. I'm supposed to do it all and most churches believe you're supposed to do it all and will come and watch you do this and when you get really, really tired will give you a pat on the back and say good boy.
Keep going and we know that there's too many things going on before the hospital pastor you have to be there or if there's a need.
You have to be there and what happens is is that the leader isn't equipping. It destroys the pastor and all those gifts in the church. Don't get used if people don't grow in their lives don't change. I will tell you this is a known fact the people that go to football games and simply watch people on the field do not get tired and they don't get in shape and they never score no matter how loud they cheer, they never score and that's a picture the church's application for listing to the first word of his message. How to become the person you've always longed to be a series. Yes, you really can change if you're feeling burdened by your pastor, find yourself stuck in an unhealthy behavior. Don't lose hope.
A changed life is not only possible, it's God's will for all of us, so we hope you'll keep listening to this series to learn how to experience ongoing life change and were here to help you along the way.
Download chips message notes stream our exclusive video content or take a look at ship's newly revised book and as always, the MP3s are free. Learn more about all the resources for yes, you really can change by going to LivingontheEdge.org or calling AAA 83336003 hapless nurse simply taps special offers chip.
Could you give us a little history and what really motivated you to teach the series. I sure can. Dave, I have to tell you I think many Christians are experiencing a Christian life that honestly isn't working for them.
Here's what I mean. I remember a young guy. He was mid to late 20s we became friends. He he trusted Christ after coming to church for a few months and then about in every third week he would come up right after the message. After one of the services and asked me some questions and I mean whatever I told him he just dug and so he was in the Bible. He joined the men's group he was making great progress in and that he had just the normal ups and downs it to every new follower of Christ has and it been now you know a little over a year and I saw him coming down the aisle and I thought, oh great work and have another one of those talks and he looked at me and he was real grow, quieting say I just want to thank you Chip. It's really you help me I mean it's really been great and simple. Good. Thanks so much and it goes but I have to tell you that this is just not working for me. It would mean is Christian life doesn't work for me and I still have struggles. I'm still tempted I still have problems with my girlfriend. I'm reading the Bible. I'm in a men's group and everything isn't just perfect and so I'm I'm done so would mean you're done because I'm quitting, I ended before I could try and talk him out of it or give him some perspective. He literally just walked away and I think a lot of people would never be that blunt, but I don't think the Christian life is working for a lot of people. I think a lot of Christians are try hard, do good, fail, try harder do good fail again and then finally I think a lot of Christians are trying hard and then quitting and just kinda faking it. And this abundant life. This new life. This power this intimacy with God. These great relationships that we talk about think a lot of people were saying you know I like to have that but that's not me and so what I found was a lot of people have never had anyone meet with them personally and help them develop the kind of relationship that abundant life is not theory but a reality and so I do a thing called daily discipleship. This is a brand-new one is from Ephesians chapter 4 to help people break out of that cycle and actually experience God's power and the intimacy of this abundant life that we talk about.
It's absolutely free. I never talk more than 10 minutes. I asked them to give me 10 minutes and I give them a very simple study guide each and every day that if they'll stick with me for 18, 19, 20 days and go through it with me personally what I found is, they began to have a relationship with God that they didn't think was possible. It's called daily discipleship. There's no cost.
We don't even ask for personal information.
We just want to help people grow spiritually. Dave, could you, given the specific information about how they can sign up for the daily discipleship absolutely daily discipleship with chip are short daily sessions with Chip where he walks you through how to study a passage from the Bible and really hear God's voice.
These sessions are designed to help you get into the practice of doing that every day. The study chips. Recommending is based on his current series from Ephesians chapter 4 yes, you really can change. Understanding the process of how genuine life change really happens is essential to getting spiritually I'm stuck if you think a meeting with chip would help you do that. I hope you make it a part of your routine for the next few weeks you'll find the daily discipleship with chip@livingontheedge.org on the homepage hapless nurse just tap discipleship as we close today's program I was talking your pastor and was talking to them indirectly because what I know is I've been in his world the last 20 years and I've been worn out and I've tried to do it all and you love your pastor and you care about them and you. You are listening to your pastor's best friend. I love your pastor, I don't even knowing that the church is the hope of the world and God has placed pastors in the strategic position. The tragedy is, is there worn out doing all the ministry instead of equipping us regular people to do the ministry. So what we have to do here at how we solve this thing out how we get real change occurring not out there in the church somewhere but in your church.
I'm gonna suggest it begins with you. If your pastor listen to my voice.
I want to pray that God gives you unbelievable courage to set boundaries and say no and develop a team of people to help you do ministry and the what I know is most people listen to my voice and not a pastor. In fact, maybe you're at home right now or you're in transit. As you go back and forth to work. You need to step up. You need to help your pastor into Fremont. Yes, you pray, but you need to say what needs to happen in this church. What are normal ministry activities. Of course, visiting the hospital praying for people teaching classes, counseling, people starting a mentoring program but I did tell you something, I'm just gonna be honest, here's a pastor.
I get people all the time who come to me and say this is what we ought to do and they dump it on my plate and I'm already overloaded and then I get discouraged and then there down on me as a pastor, because I can't do it all. That's not God's plan.
Let me tell you what to do comes your pastor and say you know what I think are junior high ministry needs to take it up a notch.
My wife and I prayed about this.
We've already recruited two or three other couples and we want to run them by you and talk about it but we would like for the next year to see if we could take junior high where God wants it. Would that be okay. Can you imagine how your pastor's gonna feel for your lady listen to my voice you think always got all this counseling probably should be counseling ladies. Anyway, what you got withdrew for their ladies and thought about who is gifted in this and you get together and you praying you go to the pastor and say hey there's four of us women are godly there people that have been walking with the Lord for long time and that we actually advance material we want to run it by you first pastor when all these women come or marriage situations that the woman need someone to cry and to pray with.
We want to tell you we want to be your team. Can you imagine the difference that'll make you can. Can't you so what's the application. The application is dream.
The dream find a couple friends and go do it and not only will you help your pastor and bless your church unit is gonna change you can get transformed you because God gave you gifts and he's going to use you beyond your wildest dreams. I can't wait to hear from you when you email or write and let us know how God is using you in your local church just before we close owner thank each of you who's making this program possible through your generous giving 100% of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians know if you found chips teaching helpful, but you're not yet on the team.
Would you consider doing that today to donate. Just go to LivingontheEdge.org tap donate on the app or give us a call at triple late. 333-6003, let me thank you in advance for whatever the Lord leads you to do. Until next time for everyone. This is Dave Drewry saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge