Ever feel like your life is going nowhere? Fast?
Have you ever asked the question, I mean recently,
why am I here? What's my purpose? If you'd like
to learn to move from success to significance,
stick around. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself,
why am I here? Not just existing, but truly living
with purpose? Today on Living on the Edge, Chip
Ingram helps us answer life's most fundamental
question. He reveals that your mission in life
isn't about owning a home, being comfortable,
or making sure your kids turn out right. God
placed you on earth for one specific reason,
to know Christ and make Him known. But here's
the question, where does that happen? The answer
might surprise you. It's not somewhere far away.
It's right where you are. Here's Chip Ingram
continuing our series called Experience Breakthrough.
Never forget the... illustration a guy shared
with me. I was a young Christian, just a couple
years. I can't remember where I was, but I still
have the picture in my mind of the napkin. And
he pulled out a napkin and he drew about six
different buckets with the picture from a source,
my life, rainbows. Rainbows going into these
six different buckets. He said, you know, Chip,
everyone has a dream in their life, whether they
verbalize it or not. And they're following the
rainbow into the pot or the bucket of gold. You
know, some people follow the dream. And then
he drew the little bucket and he wrote the word
fame. He said, other people, it's not fame, it's
popularity or looks. And then he made another
rainbow and he drew a little bucket and he put
a dollar sign on it. And he said, you know, some
people think if they just get enough money and
can own enough things and impress enough people,
then life will come through for them. And then
he drew another rainbow and he put a bucket and
it said success. And then he drew one that surprised
me. He said family. He said, Chip, we could draw
buckets where people follow rainbows and every
bucket in life is empty except two. There's only
two buckets that if you give your life to these,
they'll always come through for you. Number one
is God's word because it's eternal. Every time
you invest in God's word, anytime you take it
in, read it, apply it, pass it on, share it with
anyone else, you're investing in something that
will never, never fail. The second bucket that
will always be full are the souls of men and
the souls of women. Every human being on the
face of this planet eternally matters to God.
Anytime you invest in a relationship, anytime
you love a person, pray for a person, care for
a person, provide the needs of a person, encourage
a person, you're marking into something that's
eternal. And by the way, remember, there is a
resurrection coming and everyone gets resurrected.
You're aware of that. Scripture says some to
be with the Lord forever, some to be separated
for all eternity. You need to know your mission.
Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 28. As you
go or go, therefore, make disciples of all ethnos,
all people, all people groups, all nations. Make
disciples. Make followers of me. Baptize them.
Identification in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit and all the things
that I've taught you, pass on to them in order
that they could not just learn them, but obey
them. Put them into practice. And by the way,
I'll be with you. I know you can't do it on your
own. I'll be with you always. See, in a nutshell,
here's your mission in life. If you're a housewife,
this is your mission. If you're a carpenter,
this is your mission. If you're a businessman,
this is your mission. If you're a musician, this
is your mission. If you're a student, it's your
mission. If you're a woman, it's your mission.
If you're a man, it's your mission. Your mission
is to know Christ and to make him known. That's
why you were placed on this planet. Period. That
will come through your personality, your desires,
your backgrounds. And you can do it in San Jose
or you can do it in San Juan. And you can do
it by working with your hands and you can do
it by working with your head. Your mission, your
reason for existence is to know him. And then
out of the overflow of your relationship to make
him known. Your mission is not to own a home.
Your mission is not to be comfortable. Your mission
is not as important as all your kids turn out
right. Your mission is not you being happy. Your
mission is not to save up enough money as though
you know the future so that your retirement years
will be secure. That's not your mission. That's
a dead end. Your mission is to know Christ and
to make him known. Every person you walk by,
believers to be encouraged, unbelievers, the
average unbeliever grew up like me. I never met
a real Christian until I was 18, 17. I mean,
I met church people and I saw a bunch of junk
that happened in churches. I never met a real
one. I mean, one that lives out. One whose life
and words matched up and told the same story.
One who would listen instead of talk at me. One
who cared. One who lived it out. One who had
a radical lifestyle. One who said, I'll give
up two weeks of vacation and go to El Salvador.
Or to Mexico. Or would stop in the middle of
their busy day and say, I've got time to talk
to you. And I know it's not politically correct,
but let me tell you what Jesus has done in my
life without judging where you're at in your
life. See, you want to be significant instead
of successful? One, first and foremost, clarify
your mission. Secondly, embrace your mission
field. You need to know where you're going, but
you need to know where God wants you to know
Christ and to make him known. We get this idea
that your mission field has got to be in Africa.
I'm telling you, I hope some of you go, but I'm
going to tell you, 99 % of you probably will
never go to Africa. But we think, well, that's
the mission field. And since you're not going
there, if you're like me, you unconsciously slide
into fulfilling the agenda and buying the commercials
and looking to be happy, comfortable, prosperous,
well -off, with a dash of Jesus on the side.
embrace your mission field. Where are your greatest
spheres of influence? Jesus said not become salt,
become light. What did he say? You are salt.
You are light. You're going to reveal. You're
going to flavor. You're going to challenge. You're
going to change. You're going to have an impact
unless you're under a bushel, unless you've lost
your saltiness. Let me give you the three areas
where it is clear that you need to sprinkle the
salt of Christ. The love of Christ and the holiness
of God. First, your home. That's your first mission
field. Deuteronomy 6, 4 -9 says, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength. These commandments I
give you today are to be upon your hearts. Now
get this. Impress them on your children. Talk
about them when you sit at home and when you
walk along the road, when you lie down and when
you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands.
Buy them on your foreheads. Write them on the
door frames of your houses and on your gates.
Do your kids, your family network, see that your
number one concern and mission field is them?
Spend time in the scriptures in your home? Do
they catch you praying sometimes? Oops, sorry
mom, sorry dad. Do they see the integrity that
you talk about and this stuff about God lived
out? in your life, that's your mission field.
If it doesn't work there, don't export it. Some
of us are thinking, God, what do you want me
to do with my life? Start right where you are.
Love your wife. Love your husband. Care about
your kids. Turn the stupid TV off and spend some
time together. Find out who their friends are.
Ask them questions. Go on walks. Put your arms
around them. Don't assume everything's really
okay. Face the hard issues. Be God's man. Be
God's woman. Second field that God wants you
to make an impact in, your sphere of influence,
second mission field is your work. Do you ever
realize that the great majority of your time
is spent not at home, not at church, not praying
and not reading the Bible? Do you realize that
what most of us do is we get up every day and
we put in, I don't know anybody who works a 40
-hour week, but God bless you if you figured
out how to do that. Right? Most of us, it's about
55 or 60, then you're getting kind of revved
up. And if you're under some pressure, some of
us do the 70 or 80 hours. Don't do much of that
for this life. Now think about, multiply that
out over all the years that you live. Where do
you spend the great bulk of your entire world?
It's working, whether that's at home. or whether
that's at an office or a job site, that's where
you spend the great bulk of your life. Do you
think that God has a plan for your life, for
your family, for church, for the spiritual little
wedge or window? And over here, your work life
is like, well, you're on your own. You know,
like God in the morning says, well, hey, have
a good day. I'll catch you later. We live that
way. Notice what the scripture says, Colossians
chapter 3, verses 22 to 25. The application there
is to slaves in this culture. I think we can
make it to ours. Slaves, obey your earthly masters
and everything. Now, basically, they had some
terrible earthly masters. This is a tough command.
And do it, not only when their eye is upon you
to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart
and reverence for the Lord. Now, is the Bible
actually saying that I go to work and I do my
job as though I'm doing it for God? As an act
of worship? With a good attitude? On time? With
excellence? You know, everyone's wearing these
little bands, WWJD. What would Jesus do? I got
one for you. Put that band on your wrist and
get up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, and if you work on Saturday, Saturday
morning, and say, if Jesus was inside your body
going to your job, how would he do your job?
When would he leave? And what kind of work would
he do? And you know what? Some of us feel like
God could never use me. You start working like
that, with that kind of attitude, you will have
people lined up at your desk saying, one, could
you come work for me? Or two, what is with you?
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. We'll return to our message in just a
moment. But first, did you know that you can
access this entire series anytime you want? Head
on over to livingontheedge .org where you'll
discover Chip's full teaching library, along
with study guides and small group materials.
Whether you want to replay today's message or
explore other topics, everything you need to
grow spiritually is available online at livingontheedge
.org. Let's get back to Chip's message. And by
the way, you will take flack. Because the work
culture is what? The work culture is... How can
you do as little as possible and get as much
as possible? The Christian culture is, how much
do you get to do and do it unto God? Notice Colossians
3, 23. Whatever you do, work at it with all your
heart as working for the Lord, not for men. Can
you imagine walking in and someone saying, hey,
knock it off here. No, I'm doing this for God.
I don't work for IBM. I don't work for Hewlett
-Packard. I don't work for Plantronics. You know,
I'm doing these dishes. I'm changing these diapers.
I'm landscaping this lawn. I'm going to do it
in such a way that it honors God. Can you fathom
the impact the body of Christ would have if we
work that way? See, too many of us have bought
a car from someone out of the paper and it has
a little fish on it. And what do we immediately
think? Uh -oh. Are they really telling the truth
about this? See, a lot of people put a Bible
on their desk or they want to tell everyone to
come to a Bible study. They don't show up on
time. They don't do their homework. They're not
prepared. You know what they're doing? They're
disgracing the name of Christ. Martin Luther
put it well. He said, when a milkmaid goes out
and milks a cow and does it as an act of worship
unto the Lord, she is in a more holy state and
holy ground than when a priest or a pastor does
not take care of the Word of God and doing that
job in a way that honors Him. I've got news for
you. There aren't two sets of scales. See, people
sometimes, especially if I travel some, they
always get around to, what do you do? And I'm
always a little uncomfortable. In my mind's eye,
I still don't think of myself as a minister,
you know, or like clergy or even pastor. See,
I didn't grow up around people like that. The
bricklayer helped me. You know what I knew? He
was a bricklayer that was going to make disciples.
I think of myself as a coach. It's just a different
team. I am. I'm just a coach. And when I stand
before God, he doesn't say, oh, this is what
I expect of Chip. And then all these lay people.
Baloney. I'll tell you what he says. Now, the
ruler is going to be a little different because
I teach the word, James tells me. But he's going
to evaluate. What I do is no more spiritual than
what you do. And most of you don't believe that.
But you need to believe it because what you do
at work. That's your sphere of influence. Can
you imagine the impact? And some of you are making
it. Some of you are my heroes. As I put this
point down, you know, a number of people just
came to my mind. I thought, wow. Third, sphere
of influence is your network. Colossians 4, verses
5 and 6, notice what it says. Be wise in the
way you act toward nonbelievers. Making good
use of how many opportunities? Every opportunity
you have. Your speech should always be pleasant
and interesting, and you should know how to give
the right answer to everyone. See, you have a
network, and probably in our day, it's not your
neighborhood. It's probably the other moms or
dads on the little league team or the soccer
team. It's probably the person that, you know,
every week some of you go to the dry cleaners.
Are you building a relationship with that person?
Some of us pick up coffee at the same place almost
every morning, right? Have you ever thought that
this relationship could begin from where you
are and you could love them and build a relationship
into the kingdom? Some of you have your cars
repaired the same place. Did you realize God
has brought that mechanic into your life for
a reason? Some of you play bridge. Some of you
have hobbies. Some of you crochet. Some of you
play softball. What's your network? We always
are thinking, who am I going to share with, you
know, Christ and build this evangelistic relationship
with? Here's the secret. Help out all the people
you already know. I mean, I've been sharing the
Lord with a guy at the coffee shop for close
to seven years. I just made a major breakthrough
after about a year with the lady at 7 -Eleven,
and she saw my Bible, asked what I did, found
out her son's a Christian, is sharing Christ
with her, and now we have 30 to 2 -minute conversations
about the Scripture. I have a neighbor that I've
been praying for for 8 years, and one day I just
had an impulse from God. He brought a verse to
my mind. let your light so shine before men that
they can see your good deeds and glorify your
father in heaven. And just at an impulse, I went
over and cut her grass. She's a single mom. And
I'm thinking, no big deal. I mean, yards here,
where I grew up, when you cut grass, it was an
hour. You know, here it's 12 minutes, you're
done. And I mean, you would think I was passing
out bags of gold to this lady. She's a sweet
lady. She's a great lady. And I don't know really
where she's at spiritually, but, you know, I
live close to her, but I've never really connected.
I came home last night and there were two cartons
of eggs and two things of jam on our front door
from her saying thanks. What's your network?
It's not some way, someday, somehow, when you,
it's right now where you're at. Let me give you
number three because you need to know how to
do this. There's six steps. I call it everybody
evangelism. You move from success to significance
by one. clarifying your mission. Why am I here?
Two, embrace your mission field. Where are my
spheres of influence? The home, work, my network.
Three, engage in the harvesting process. First
Corinthians three says that we can't make anything
grow. Only God can do it. But some water and
some plant and we all work together. I know I
have only a handful of relationships where I
build a relationship, I water, I do this, I do
this, I do this. And six months or two years
later, I lead that person to Christ. There's
people I meet that people have been working on
for 20 years and I get to lead them to Christ.
There's other people that I build a relationship
with. You know what? Boy, I sure hope God does
something because I haven't seen anything. But
I'm not discouraged about that anymore. In fact,
I took the gun away from my head. I don't have
to do it. See, I am not and you are not a prosecuting
attorney. You know what we are? Witnesses. You
know what witnesses do? Witnesses step up on
the plate and say, this is what's true of me.
This is what Jesus did in my life. Now, let me
give you a way to get involved in this. Notice
the little chart. I took this out of a book called
The High Impact Church. Linus Morris did this,
and he ministers in Europe. Notice there's about
six steps. First, look at your network. Make
contact with the unchurched is your goal. Action
step, establish visibility in the community.
Identify and pray and contact people and social
networks. It's like helping out with a little
league team. Two, after the network, befriend
people. The goal, build trusting relationships,
like really care about them. The action, build
bridges socially, show love and care, look for
divine appointments, just start serving people.
Step three, identify, look for a felt need. You
know, it took me eight years. I mean, I must
be like slow of speech, slow of tongue and way
low on brains. Took me eight years to figure
out a felt need in my neighbor's life was cutting
the lawn, so simple. What are the felt needs
of the people? Going through divorce? Have financial
problems? Struggle with aging parents? Pressure
in their marriage? Here's the action step. Listen
attentively. Show concern. You don't have to
jam Jesus down their throat and give them five
Bible verses. Just listen. You will be a minority.
Just listen. Network, befriend, identify, then
share. Share your story. Action step, look for
receptivity and sensitively share your story.
This takes most of you off the hook. You don't
have to have all the answers. Just, this is what
Jesus did in my life. This is what Jesus did
in my marriage. This is what Jesus did in that
relationship, but I'm still struggling with it.
Just share your story. And then when they ask
that real hard question that's so hard and the
reason why we don't share, here's the answer.
I'm going to tell you in advance. They ask this,
what about da -da -da -da -da, right? The real
hard question. Here's your answer. I don't know.
I don't know. Here's what I know he did for me.
But you know what? The way I've learned is through
the New Testament. And I'd like to give you one
if you want to start reading it. If you have
questions, I'd be glad to talk with you. And
that's a good question. I don't know that one,
but I'll go do some study. Would you like to
get a cup of coffee and talk about it later?
You're not under pressure. You don't have to
have all the answers. Just share your story.
Fifth, invite. The goal is to expose them to
the gospel. Action step, bring an unbelieving
friend or a contact to a weekend service or to
a small group. Invite them. Finally, harvest.
Encourage commitment to Christ and assimilate
them in the life of the church. There's a point
in time where people get ready and you need to
cross over the line and say, would you like to
receive Jesus as your Savior? Would you like
to have your sins forgiven? And I'm always amazed
because I have this unbelieving mind. How many
times people would look at me and say, Yes, I
would. And you know what kept them from it? No
one's ever asked. You're hearing Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. And what a practical reminder
that your mission field isn't someday somewhere
else. It's today, right where God has placed
you. Before Chip shares a closing thought, if
you'd like to pass this message along to someone
who needs clarity about their purpose, you'll
find it at livingontheedge .org. As you think
about embracing your mission field in your home,
your workplace, and your network of relationships,
let me recommend a tool that can strengthen your
daily walk with God. It's a free resource Chip
created called Psalms of Hope. Here's how it
works. Each day for 10 days, Chip guides you
through Psalm 1, Psalm 15, or Psalm 23, providing
10 minutes of biblical insight. Then you spend
10 minutes in personal prayer and reflection.
Just 20 minutes daily, Ten life -changing days.
These psalms speak directly to the challenge
of living purposefully in a world that constantly
pulls us toward meaningless pursuits. They'll
help you stay focused on what matters eternally,
maintain spiritual clarity in the midst of daily
pressures, and discover the joy that comes from
investing your life in things that truly last.
If you need wisdom for living out your mission
right where you are, these ancient songs offer
timeless guidance. Begin your journey in the
Psalms of Hope free online at livingontheedge
.org. Just search for Psalms of Hope. Friend,
this teaching ministry continues because listeners
choose to invest in it. Your financial support
helps us equip people like you to live with purpose
and significance. Would you partner with us in
this mission? To give, visit livingontheedge
.org or mail your gift to Living on the Edge,
P .O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. You
can also call 888 -333 -6003. Well, now here's
Chip with some final thoughts. I taught this
very recently, and there was two young couples,
both that are fairly brand new Christians, I
mean, like within the last year. And they contacted
Teresa and myself because we all live in the
same neighborhood. And the one lady had been
through, I mean, super, super serious cancer,
you know, like stage four. I don't know if she's
going to make it, but they grew up in this area.
And so they had all kind of friends. And we prayed.
We anointed her with oil as elders. We prayed.
We fasted. God miraculously intervened. She went
through all kind of difficult times and then
was restored to health. And in that journey,
she and her husband came to a personal relationship
with Christ. And then all these friends and neighbors
and college and fraternity and people that they
knew for like 25 years, they'd rallied around
them and they saw their life. And they came to
Teresa and myself. And I said, you know, we want
our neighbors to really hear about Jesus. But
I mean, you know, we don't even hardly know what
we're talking about, but we really want to see
this happen. What could we do? And we literally
did what I talked about in this message. And
here, can I tell you something? God is preparing
people. The people at work, the people in your
neighborhood, you think they're not open. They
just need someone to invite them, to love them,
to care about them, take an interest in them.
Find another person or two, pray for them. And
here's how it starts. Absolutely small. It was
six of us around a kitchen table six months before
we started it. And then God began to work. What
does he want you to do? It's absolutely small.
It's just a mustard seed. Take the step and watch
God work. Tired of the pursuit that leaves you
empty? I'm Dave Drewy. Discover the pathway to
true fulfillment tomorrow on Living on the Edge.
Today's program is produced and sponsored by
Living on the Edge.