Latest / Crossway Radio / Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Daily Podcast - The Power of Spiritual Training in the Transformation Process, Part 1

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Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Daily Podcast - The Power of Spiritual Training in the Transformation Process, Part 1 · Crossway Radio

• 0:11
  Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
• 0:14
  You know, once a person makes a commitment to
• 0:16
  follow Christ, I mean radical and all indecision,
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  there's a process God uses to transform us. Well,
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  today I'm going to address what I believe is
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  one of the most neglected areas of spiritual
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  growth. Because once we're aware and willing
• 0:29
  to engage, it results in amazing life change.
• 0:33
  Stay with me. What if the secret to lasting change
• 0:37
  isn't a longer to -do list, but a completely
• 0:40
  different kind of list? A to -be list. I'm Dave
• 0:44
  Drew, and this is Living on the Edge with Chip
• 0:46
  Ingram. We're continuing our series called Free
• 0:48
  at Last, How to Break Out of a Destructive Lifestyle.
• 0:51
  And if you've missed any part so far, you can
• 0:54
  always catch up online at livingontheedge .org.
• 0:58
  Today, Chip gets very practical about two areas
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  where spiritual training changes everything.
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  hard work, and the words that come out of your
• 1:05
  mouth. Now here's Chip with today's message titled,
• 1:09
  The Power of Spiritual Training in the Transformation
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  Process. Listen carefully. Only God can transform
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  a life. Only by God's supernatural grace can
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  a life be authentically changed from the inside
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  out. But he chooses to never do it alone. It's
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  a joint effort. Transformation, the miracle of
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  life change, everything we've talked about is
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  a joint effort. It's completely and fully by
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  grace, but we have a part. Now, I want you to
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  see this combination. Psalm 77, 14 says, you
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  are the God who performs miracles. You display
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  your power among the people. God does miracles.
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  He's done them in the past. He does them today.
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  That's God's part, the supernatural. He does
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  miracles among us, but look at the next passage
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  in Romans 8. He does miracles in us. The Spirit
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  of God who raised Jesus from the dead, amazingly,
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  lives in you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,
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  you have no obligation to do what your sinful
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  nature urges you to do. God does miracles in
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  the world. He parts red seas. He's raised people
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  from the dead. But he doesn't just do miracles
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  among us. He does miracles in us. The same spirit
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  that raised Christ from the dead, when you put
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  your faith in him, dwells inside of you. We don't
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  have to sin anymore. We will. We will have struggles.
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  But you've been forgiven. The penalty of sin's
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  been paid. The power of sin has been broken.
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  And now the spirit... Of the living God that
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  created all that there is, if you're a follower
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  of Jesus, lives inside of you. That's God's part.
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  Now notice the apostle Paul says, but that's
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  not how it all works. Philippians chapter four,
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  he says, I can do, that's something he does,
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  I can do all things, but how? Through Christ
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  who gives me strength. In fact, the next passage
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  in Philippians 2, he kind of puts the whole package
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  together. There's God's part, there's our part,
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  there's dependency, it's all of grace, and yet
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  we have to make every effort. And so he commands
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  us, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
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  Then notice the second half. For it is God who
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  is at work in you, both to will and to work for
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  his good pleasure. Be diligent. Be diligent.
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  Work hard. Refuse to take shortcuts. It says,
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  he who steals must steal no longer, but rather
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  he must labor, performing with his own hands
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  what is good. Then notice the purpose clause.
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  So that he may have something to share with the
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  one who has need. Training objective is financial
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  stewardship and rooted in this is our work ethic.
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  The training command is steal no longer. Grammatically,
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  he's saying, people in this particular church
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  were stealing. Grammatically, it's stop stealing,
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  knock it off. And then what we're gonna see in
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  just a minute, he's gonna say, stop stealing,
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  recognize the value of work and the purpose of
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  work. And then he says, now I want you to put
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  on, I want you to learn to work or to labor.
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  And he's talking about real physical labor here,
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  but unto the Lord. I want you to work as though
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  you're working for an audience of one. So there's
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  a great value in work. But notice also in this
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  passage, the purpose of work. The purpose of
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  work just isn't upward economic mobility. He
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  says, you who steal, steal no longer. Stop taking
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  shortcuts, but work with your hands. What's the
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  last phrase? So that you may be able to share.
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  See, it goes from saying, I'm not gonna steal
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  I want to be generous. The training apparatus
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  that's been most helpful to me is I'm going to
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  encourage you to write out a to -be list. And
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  when I say a to -be list, here's one of my biggest
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  mentors, other than my father and a few other
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  people. I shared with you, Professor Howard Hendricks
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  was a great mentor in my life. In my third year
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  of school, there was about 10 or 12 of us. We
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  met with him for lunch. And we'd have a brown
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  bag lunch and we would talk. And I was working
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  full -time, going to school full -time, had three
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  kids, and had just started out pastoring a church.
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  And so, I mean, my life was crazy. I mean, it
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  was up four in the morning, and you study here,
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  then you do this with the church, and then you
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  drive in, and then you go to school, and then
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  you try and be a good dad. I mean, it was nuts.
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  And I'll never forget him talking about men,
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  the problem with a lot of your lives, because
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  we'd ask him questions for an hour every Wednesday
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  afternoon over lunch. He says, you need to...
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  create a to -be list instead of just a to -do
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  list. I mean, my to -do lists were this long
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  and I could never get them all done. And I'll
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  never forget, you might be thinking, what do
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  you mean by a to -be list? He said, you will
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  never be more loved than you're loved right now.
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  You'll never get all your to -dos done. And your
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  life isn't based on your performance. So what
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  you need to do is get very, very clear about
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  who do you want to be? Who do you want to become?
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  And I remember driving away from that little
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  seminary and stopping at a Dairy Queen in a little
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  town called Crandall, and then on the back of
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  a napkin said, I'm either gonna make a to -be
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  list and follow it, or I'm gonna keep living
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  this crazy life where I'm not quite the husband
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  I need to be in. I'm not getting enough sleep,
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  and I'm not working out anymore, and I've got
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  school over here, and life is crazy. And in the
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  back of a little napkin, I said, I want to be
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  a man of God. I want to be a great husband. I
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  want to be a great dad. I want to be a great
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  friend. I want to be a great pastor. And I want
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  to be someone who takes care of my body. And
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  I decide if I'm gonna be a man of God, I'm gonna
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  meet with God at least an hour every morning
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  before anybody else. If I'm gonna be a great
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  husband, my wife's gonna know that every Friday
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  for three hours, we're gonna have a date uninterrupted
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  that she has me with my undivided attention.
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  And every night, every night after our meal,
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  it might be 10 minutes, it might be 30 minutes,
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  but we're gonna talk and connect from the heart.
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  I went through and I put my kids' names in my
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  schedule on the same calendar. And to be, then
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  I said, we're gonna eat together and I'm gonna
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  meet with my kids individually. And then there
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  was two or three guys that I really liked. I
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  said, I want to be a great friend and I want
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  to work out and I love being with you guys and
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  I need to process some stuff with you that I
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  don't need to talk about with my wife. And I
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  built that in my schedule. And then I changed
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  my calendar and I said, you know what, there's
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  two or three things as the senior pastor that
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  only I can do. And all of Wednesday was going
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  to be sermon preparation and I was going to have
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  my deadline. And I mean, it was so hard. And
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  it was three steps forward and two steps backwards.
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  But I was more concerned about my to -be list
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  than my to -do list. Be diligent. Work hard.
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  Don't take shortcuts. Station number four is
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  be positive. Don't wound with your words. Don't
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  wound with your words. Be positive. Let no unwholesome
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  word proceed from your mouth, but only such a
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  word as is good for evocation according to the
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  need of the moment. Notice the purpose clause.
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  so that it will give grace to those who hear.
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  Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom
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  you were sealed for the day of redemption. Here
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  we have the training objective is positive speech.
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  Positive speech. The training command, say only
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  that which helps. Stop saying unwholesome words.
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  The word here has the idea of rotten. putrid,
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  corrupt. It's like milk that is spoiled or fruit
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  that's gone bad or meat that has been corrupted.
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  Don't let anything come out of your mouth that's
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  corrupt or putrid. Instead, say words that build
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  up, that help, that edify, that encourage. And
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  the idea of this phrase is that encourage specifically
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  at specific times according to the needs as you're
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  engaging with people. The training action is
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  put off negative speech. Renew, recognize the
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  power and the consequences of your speech. So
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  first we're gonna put off negative speech. Here's
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  some examples of negative speech. Sarcasm, put
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  downs, innuendos, general negativity, outbursts
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  of anger, criticism, labeling, abusive speech,
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  cussing, swearing, taking the Lord's name in
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  vain, slander, gossip, coarse jokes. Should I
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  go on? Now, here's the deal. You need to understand
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  the power in your words. You're listening to
• 10:22
  Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and there's
• 10:25
  more coming up in a moment, so stay with us.
• 10:27
  Beyond this broadcast, Chip's teaching also lives
• 10:30
  on the Living on the Edge YouTube channel. Full
• 10:33
  sermons, short clips you can send to a friend,
• 10:36
  and entire series you can work through at your
• 10:38
  own pace. Just search Living on the Edge with
• 10:41
  Chip Ingram on YouTube and subscribe so you don't
• 10:44
  miss what's next. Now let's continue today's
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  lesson. Proverbs 18 .21, very powerful. Tells
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  us there's life and death in the power of our
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  words. And those who love it will eat its fruit.
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  I mean, if I could pass a microphone around and
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  some of you could tell me a moment with one of
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  your parents or with a teacher or with a coach
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  who said something to you and it brought death
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  to you. You're a loser. I wish we never had you.
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  You'll never amount to anything. Get out of this
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  house. You're too short. You're too fat. You'll
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  never make it. I don't love you. Remember? Remember
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  that? Words are not, you know, that sticks and
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  stones will break my bones, but words will never
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  hurt me. Liar, liar, liar, pants on fire. You
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  can absorb a lot more sticks and stones than
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  you can ever. Power, there's life and death in
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  the power of words. What comes out of your mouth
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  brings life to the people around you or kills
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  them. We could get another microphone and we
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  could talk about the teacher or the coach or
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  the friend or the person who said, no, you ought
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  to go out for the team. I think you'd be good.
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  You know, it's amazing how you think. Have you
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  ever thought of being an engineer? Oh, no, no,
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  you should apply to a college. You can make it.
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  And now you got your PhD. Or you know something?
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  You pick up those songs pretty quickly. Why don't
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  you try playing this instrument? You're great
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  with people. Have you ever thought about being
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  a counselor? Hey, we need you. Come on. And you
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  know what? Someone believed in you before you
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  believed in yourself and they gave you words
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  of life and words of hope. Be positive. Don't
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  wound with your words. Why? Because there's power.
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  The second reason, there's consequences. Very
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  interesting. I don't know if you've ever done
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  this, but now and then I've memorized a verse
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  that I wish I hadn't. Only because it's like,
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  oh my lands, I have to live with this. Luke 6
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  .45 is a very interesting passage where Jesus
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  says that our words are like a spiritual MRI
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  and they will tell you what's really going on
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  in your heart. A good man, according to Jesus,
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  brings good things out of the good stored up
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  in his heart. And an evil man brings out evil
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  things of the evil stored up in his heart. For
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  the mouth speaks by that which fills the heart.
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  See, the reason you need to be so careful and
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  actually monitor your words and listen to your
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  words is because a lot of us say things to people.
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  We're critical of someone. We put put downs here,
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  innuendo here, a little joke here, a little sexual
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  connotation here. And we think, ah, what are
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  words? And then we say something in an argument
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  and then we say, oh, I was only kidding or I
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  didn't really mean it. No, no, no, no, you don't
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  get it. What you really mean is what comes out
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  of your mouth. In fact, a lot of the, oh, I'm
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  only kidding, I'm only joking, that's just because
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  you don't have the courage to say it directly
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  and kindly and lovingly. What you really mean
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  is exactly what came out of your mouth. Outbursts
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  of anger tell you about hatred in your heart.
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  Put downs and insecurities come out of your mouth
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  because you put someone down because this is
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  what's going on inside. See, our words, you have
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  to go into training. James said that if you can
• 14:03
  ever control your tongue, it's like putting the
• 14:05
  bit in a horse or like the rudder on a ship.
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  You can control your whole life. We'll talk about
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  some very practical ways in just a minute, but
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  I just want you to get, go into training to be
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  positive. Go into training where you think about
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  what comes out of my mouth. And if you... want
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  to grow spiritually and understand. So what's
• 14:27
  God doing in me? Listen to your words. Listen
• 14:30
  to your tone of voice. Is there an angry heart?
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  Is there a critical heart? Is there a wounded
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  heart? Is there a perverted heart? Is there a
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  corrupt heart? Because it'll tell you. And if
• 14:42
  that isn't enough, this is the one that, maybe
• 14:44
  another passage that, I don't know what I was
• 14:46
  doing. I had this season where I was memorizing
• 14:48
  one of these verses. I guess I really needed
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  them. And these are what I call Jesus verses.
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  These are ones like, Lord, I had no idea that
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  my mouth was so critical to every single relationship.
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  Matthew chapter 12, verses 36 and 37, Jesus says,
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  but I tell you that every careless word that
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  people speak, they shall render account for it
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  in the day of judgment. For by your words, you'll
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  be justified and by your words, you'll be condemned.
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  Every careless word, every little comment, every
• 15:22
  little gossip, every little slander, every little
• 15:24
  conversation, driving out of the parking lot
• 15:26
  talking about someone, everything when you get
• 15:28
  off the phone and you put it down and you talk
• 15:30
  about someone that you would never say if they
• 15:32
  were here in those presence. And Jesus says that
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  every careless word that you speak or I speak,
• 15:39
  I will give an account and you will give an account
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  at the day of judgment. Can you grasp? Can you
• 15:46
  fathom the impact that would have on your heart,
• 15:50
  your relationships with God if you went into
• 15:53
  training? Because really, your words are a reflection
• 15:56
  of your heart. When you go into training for
• 15:59
  your speech, you know what you're doing? You're
• 16:01
  building probably the most important muscle in
• 16:04
  your body. The most important muscle in your
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  body is your heart. And there's few things that
• 16:11
  you can go into training for. that will let you
• 16:13
  know how your heart is doing. Like saying to
• 16:17
  yourself, you know, Lord, I'm gonna use my speech
• 16:21
  as a mirror. In fact, your word is a mirror to
• 16:24
  me, and I'm gonna use my speech as a mirror so
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  that rather than just some sort of external nice
• 16:30
  morality, Christian, I wanna be someone who's
• 16:34
  pure in heart. Because according to Jesus, the
• 16:37
  pure in heart see God and experience God. And
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  I'm gonna go into training to be positive. I'm
• 16:44
  gonna be positive in my words in my home and
• 16:46
  with my roommate and with my friends. I'm gonna
• 16:49
  be positive when people are around. I'm gonna
• 16:51
  be positive for my tone of voice. Now, when you
• 16:54
  go into training on this one, it will be very
• 16:55
  painful at first because most of us don't think
• 16:58
  much about our words. Well, how do you do that?
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  Let me give you a little training apparatus.
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  Practice silence and solitude. Under silence,
• 17:09
  would you just jot the verse, Proverbs 10, 19.
• 17:13
  It says, when there are many words, transgression
• 17:15
  is unavoidable. This is a funny application.
• 17:20
  Talk less. Now, for some of you, that's not a
• 17:24
  problem. For others, I won't mention any names.
• 17:29
  It's a big problem. In fact, you might even try,
• 17:32
  if you have a problem with speaking and you want
• 17:34
  to get control, you might do the five or 10 second
• 17:36
  rule. Something comes to your mind, one 1 ,000,
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  two 1 ,000, three 1 ,000, four 1 ,000, five 1
• 17:42
  ,000 before you speak. For some of us, you need
• 17:44
  to go to 10. But silence. The second is solitude.
• 17:51
  And what I mean by solitude is I don't have a
• 17:53
  picture of you. Although it probably wouldn't
• 17:55
  hurt most of us to get two or three days away
• 17:57
  in some retreat center and not speak to anyone
• 18:00
  for two or three days. Many of us, that would
• 18:02
  maybe be too much too soon. We'd probably go
• 18:04
  insane. White jacket, you know. But I will tell
• 18:08
  you what. If you would say, God, I'm gonna spend
• 18:11
  solitude with you a half hour or 45 minutes or
• 18:15
  an hour every day. And since this is the mirror
• 18:17
  of your word and it is truth. What I'm gonna
• 18:20
  do, God, is I want you to know that I want my
• 18:22
  heart to be pure and I will deceive myself and
• 18:26
  so I'm gonna systematically read through your
• 18:28
  word and there's lots of good programs and you
• 18:30
  read and then you close your Bible and you say,
• 18:32
  Lord, would you help me respond? What do you
• 18:34
  wanna say to me? And then you sit quietly and
• 18:36
  for some of you, just sit quietly. You don't
• 18:38
  need to do this. For some of us that are very,
• 18:41
  very verbal, then I get out my journal, I begin
• 18:43
  to write. Lord, would you speak to me? Would
• 18:46
  you bring to my mind anybody or anything in the
• 18:48
  last day or so where things have come out of
• 18:50
  my mouth and sit quietly and I will tell you,
• 18:53
  if you struggle with like God never answers my
• 18:55
  prayers, you're gonna get some answers prayers
• 18:57
  in a hurry. He'll bring vivid pictures to your
• 18:59
  mind of what you said or how you said it. And
• 19:03
  this will be difficult at first, but you'll start
• 19:05
  experiencing God. When you go into training on
• 19:09
  your speech and you begin to open his word, you'll
• 19:12
  start to experience God. Because he longs for
• 19:15
  your words to give life. He longs for you to
• 19:18
  be a conduit of life and hope and building up
• 19:20
  and education in your home and at work and in
• 19:23
  your family and your neighborhood. But most of
• 19:26
  us don't think much about what we say. So let
• 19:29
  me encourage you. Go into training. Be positive.
• 19:35
  Don't wound with your words. Station number five.
• 19:40
  We go into training to be forgiving. Be forgiving.
• 19:47
  Be the first to say, I'm sorry. Verse 31, he
• 19:53
  says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger
• 19:55
  and clamor and slander be put away from you along
• 19:58
  with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
• 20:03
  forgiving each other. Well, how? Just as God
• 20:06
  and Christ also has forgiven you. Would you put
• 20:09
  a line under those key words? Bitterness, wrath,
• 20:12
  anger, clamor, slander, and then skip down to
• 20:15
  all malice. Then put a circle around kind. Circle
• 20:20
  around tenderhearted. Circle around forgiving.
• 20:23
  In fact, grammatically, what he's gonna say is
• 20:25
  stop being bitter, and grammatically, it's show
• 20:28
  yourself or demonstrate yourself to be a kind,
• 20:31
  tenderhearted, compassionate, forgiving person.
• 20:35
  The training objective is relational harmony.
• 20:38
  I mean, that's really what he's talking about
• 20:39
  is great relationships. The training command
• 20:42
  is to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving.
• 20:45
  The negative is stop hateful attitudes and behaviors.
• 20:51
  Start showing and demonstrating loving attitudes
• 20:54
  and behaviors. And so the training actions are
• 20:57
  to put off hate. You're listening to Living on
• 21:02
  the Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled
• 21:05
  The Power of Spiritual Training in the Transformation
• 21:08
  Process. Part of our larger series called Free
• 21:11
  at Last, How to Break Out of a Destructive Lifestyle.
• 21:14
  Miss the beginning or want to send today's message
• 21:17
  to someone you know? The Living on the Edge podcast
• 21:19
  has this whole series lined up and ready to go.
• 21:22
  If you'd rather hear Chip's sermon start to finish
• 21:25
  with nothing cut, that's on the Chip Ingram Sermon
• 21:28
  Podcast. Writing your own to -be list is one
• 21:32
  thing. Actually living it out is another. That
• 21:35
  gap is exactly where Chip's book, Yes, You Really
• 21:37
  Can Change, picks up. Real, workable steps for
• 21:41
  becoming the person you wrote down. It's a clear,
• 21:44
  biblically grounded look at what spiritual transformation
• 21:46
  actually requires and where the power to change
• 21:49
  really comes from. And right now, we'll send
• 21:52
  you two copies for the price of one, so you can
• 21:55
  grab one for yourself and hand the other to someone
• 21:57
  beside you, whether it's in a small group or
• 21:59
  just a friend you'd like to share the journey
• 22:01
  with. So pick up your copies online at livingontheedge
• 22:05
  .org slash offers. Training takes consistency,
• 22:10
  and so does keeping a ministry like this one
• 22:12
  on the air. This program runs entirely on gifts
• 22:15
  from listeners like you. So whatever amount you're
• 22:18
  able to give, we invite you to stand with us
• 22:21
  today and make your donation online at livingontheedge
• 22:24
  .org or give over the phone by calling 888 -333
• 22:28
  -6003. You can also send a check by writing to
• 22:33
  Living on the Edge, P .O. Box 3007, Suwannee,
• 22:37
  Georgia, 30024. Well, now here's Chip. As we
• 22:41
  close today's program, I talked about being diligent.
• 22:45
  And the Apostle Paul always takes the negative
• 22:48
  and replaces it with the positive and basically
• 22:51
  told us, you know, don't be lazy, but work hard.
• 22:54
  Stop stealing, which is basically a shortcut.
• 22:56
  And he says, work hard in order that you might
• 23:00
  have something to give to those that are in need.
• 23:02
  And the overarching principle there is. Don't
• 23:05
  take a shortcut. And it's not just stealing money.
• 23:08
  You know, we steal time. We steal relationships.
• 23:10
  We just think there's little shortcuts we can
• 23:13
  take. And what we know down deep is it never
• 23:15
  works that way. Diligence is a tough one to develop.
• 23:19
  In fact, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self
• 23:22
  -discipline. And I shared something today that
• 23:24
  I think might be a great exercise for you. The
• 23:27
  first time I did it, it took me less than a half
• 23:29
  hour, but it changed the entire course of my
• 23:32
  life. I was 28 years old, thinking deeply about
• 23:36
  the kind of things we talked about today, and
• 23:38
  I still remember pulling over at that Dairy Queen
• 23:40
  in Crandall, Texas, and I got out a napkin and
• 23:44
  I made a to -be list. Not a to -do list, a to
• 23:47
  -be list. And let me encourage you, what would
• 23:50
  happen if you did that? And just you said, I
• 23:53
  want to be a man or a woman of God. You know,
• 23:56
  I want to be a great dad or a great mom. You
• 24:00
  know, I want to be a great friend. And so I wrote
• 24:04
  those things down and the key areas of my life.
• 24:07
  And then I began to plug in, what would it take
• 24:10
  to be a man of God? What would it take? To be
• 24:13
  a good, a really great husband. And I put those
• 24:16
  in my schedule. And did I keep them 100 % of
• 24:18
  the time? Are you kidding me? No way. But I kept
• 24:22
  them a lot more. And then that's where my small
• 24:24
  group kicked in. Because instead of just saying,
• 24:26
  how are you doing? Well, I've got 133 things
• 24:28
  to do. And I did 120 yesterday. Now I've got
• 24:30
  150 today. I mean, isn't that how life works?
• 24:33
  It rearranged my whole life around who I wanted
• 24:36
  to become. Can I encourage you? Take 30 minutes
• 24:39
  and make a to -be list. Next time, Chip continues
• 24:42
  this message titled The Power of Spiritual Training
• 24:46
  in the Transformation Process. So be sure to
• 24:48
  join us again right here on Living on the Edge.
• 24:54
  Today's program is produced and sponsored by
• 24:57
  Living on the Edge.