Jesus Unfiltered - Follow - Jesus Offers Satisfaction, Part 2

If I could tell you how to be satisfied, I mean really content in your heart, no matter how much money you make, where you live, who you're married to, or being single, or even how you look.

I mean satisfied, contentment. That's what we're going to learn today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. And did Chip's setup just now sound too good to be true?

I mean, can you really find true fulfillment in life without having to chase money, social status, or relationships? Well today Chip will continue revealing the answer. Through the second half of his talk, Jesus offers satisfaction. So if you're ready, here's Chip as he begins today in the Gospel of John chapter seven. And then notice verse 37.

This is the climax of this entire text. And so there's controversy. Jesus goes to the feast.

Jesus teaches in the temple. He's now the center of controversy. And now it's the very last day and everyone's wondering what's going to happen? Who is he?

What's happening? Some people say he's demon possessed. Some people say, no, he's the Messiah. Some say, no, he's the prophet. Other people say he's insane.

I mean, it's all over the map. And then that priest pours out that water and boldly he does, he goes super public. Behold, if any man thirsts and he declares.

Now remember the context. The water came out of the rock. Why didn't the people, why were they in the wilderness for 40 years? They did not believe. The promise was a promised land. Those who believed went into the promised land.

Why? To have the best life, their thirst quenched for purpose and meaning in the midst of a battle. And Jesus is standing up and says, you all are celebrating a promised land that God did in the past. This is the promised person and I'm offering myself to whoever will believe, who will trust in me. I'm the Messiah. Now do you see how the context, now that you know about the feast, how it starts making sense? Then notice the Jewish leaders, what they do. On hearing his words, some of the people said, whoa.

See, there's different responses to different people. He's the prophet. Others said, no, he's the Christ. And someone goes, wait a second, the Christ doesn't come from Galilee, he comes from Bethlehem.

So they're ignorant. He did come from Bethlehem. Then notice the final section, getting the frame, the border of the puzzle, is the Jewish temple guards came back and the Pharisees go, where is he?

We sent you to arrest him, where is he? And they go like, no man has ever spoken like this man. They were mesmerized. So the Pharisees, you can look at it, they say, are you under his spell?

Are you cursed as well? And then their elite arrogance, none of us Pharisees, none of us have ever believed in him because he were educated, we're sophisticated, and we're deeply threatened and insecure and we want control. They didn't say that actually in the text here, but it's what's going on. And so Nicodemus, remember, he's had that sort of visit with Jesus at night and he said, I know you're from God because of these dramatic miracles. And so Nicodemus kind of puts his hand up and goes, hey guys, you know, I'm a respected leader here too. Don't we have a law that we all obey about we never condemn a person unless we hear from him and we do this the right way? And he gets rebuffed and with this sarcasm, so are you from Galilee too?

So do you get the framework now? Now you see what's happened, the context, tabernacles, last six months of his life, goes to the feast, he teaches, he becomes the center of controversy, he's rejected by the leaders. Finally, the climax is this, what seems to be the most important event or action in the passage. So you're reading your Bible, okay, I'm just talking, you're just doing this and you're learning and you say, okay, got it. And this doesn't have to take, you know, an hour every day.

I mean, you're like really smart people. But then you ask yourself, okay, I got the context, I've got the flow, what's the most important event or truth, what is it that really sticks out this chapter's about? And isn't it pretty obvious, verse 37 through 44 is when Jesus makes a statement.

Well then that's where you camp. You say, wow, that's the most important thing in this whole passage, Lord, I want you to speak to me. Now follow this very carefully. Jesus promises, now we're gonna go to our day, to quench your thirst and whoever's thirst that would believe and trust in Him if He would be the center of your life. As important as your wife, your husband, your job, your money, your future, your company, all those things can be distractions. He says all those things have their place. I want you to believe and trust and follow me and I'll put those things in place because the Spirit of God will give you what they can't. When the Spirit of God produces the life of Christ, the love and the peace and the joy that you're looking for, I will give. The generosity, the patience, the kindness that you need in relationships, I'll produce that as well.

The self-control and the discipline to stay on track, the Spirit will produce that from within you. He's saying I want to provide that for you as you follow me. He said it to them and He's saying it to us.

Now here's the big question. How do you move from simply knowing a passage, knowing about wisdom and knowing about God to hearing His voice personally? You, the Bible, the Holy Spirit working in you, how do you hear God's voice? We looked at a truth. Truth was very clear.

Jesus said, my words, their spirit and their life. Now look at this promise. The promise is if any man, if any man, and it's generic or woman, is willing to do my will, he will know of the teaching whether I'm speaking from myself or whether I'm speaking from God. So here's an axiomatic principle of hearing God's voice. You have to be willing to do what it says. I will tell you, you can read the Bible until you're blue in the face. You can go to Bible studies. You can hear messages.

You can do all kind of things. But unless you're willing to do, to obey, then here's what God does. Why would God give you or me new truth if we won't respond to the truth that He's already given me? Jesus in His teaching in Mark 4 says, if you respond to the light that I give you, you'll get more light. If you refuse perpetually or habitually to not respond to the truth or the light that I give you, even the light that you have will be taken away. Now, by the way, this isn't just about, quote, becoming a Christian. I got a call and actually had an event with Walk Through the Bible and they asked me to come and lead that organization. And I was, you know, sort of a compliment, I suppose, but I was just like, okay, I got to really, I mean, we love where we're at. I thought I'd be in Santa Cruz until I died. All of you, right?

Haven't you been where you got a really big decision and you feel tension? And what do I need? I don't need to just study the Bible. I need to hear God's voice. And so I prayed for a month, two months, three months. I'm into the fourth month. I'm hearing nothing.

Does this happen to anybody else? I mean, nothing. God, show me.

I mean, this is really big. I mean, what, here's what goes through my mind. What if I'm supposed to do it and I don't do it and I miss what you're supposed to, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. What if I'm not supposed to do it and then I go and then I mess up.

You've given this great church and these great people and my family loves it. And so, you know, one day, another day, another day, right? I was like, you know, the passage where it talks about, you know, tossed by the waves back and forth. And, you know, just, and, you know, so I fasted. That didn't work. I didn't know what God wanted me to do.

Here's what I did know. My wife did not want to go. And I didn't want to go. And so, you know, they said, look, we have to have a decision by this day.

You know, we've given you one month, two months, three months, four months. And, you know, I did my due diligence, my research, I visited, figured out, you know, strengths, weaknesses, all the rest. And I was doing something, some sort of event because I remember I was at John Wayne Airport and I had like two or three more days I had to give a decision.

And sort of as my practice, I always get a cup of coffee before I get on the planes. Went over to Starbucks, got a cup of coffee and my back was hurting that day. And so I went and sat on the floor in the corner and I said, God, please speak to me. And I, as you know, no audible voice, but it was, well, Chip, are you willing to do whatever I say? And my honest response was maybe. Right?

Maybe. I just really want to know what your will is so I can decide whether I'll obey you or not. Anybody else ever do that? And it was like, it was just like nonstarter. Oh, and I said, okay, Lord, this is, this is an emotional, this is just flat out decision. If you will show me no matter what, cause I didn't want to go, I will do whatever you say, but I don't want some emotional experience. I don't, I got to know whether it's really you, not me. Cause I've been yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, right about nine times. And so I just, I'm going to read where I'm, where my normal reading is. And I was in the book of acts and I read and it was like literally a passage went, arise, go.

Oh no, this is not going to go well with Teresa. And it didn't, but God, it was a pivotal point in our life. Here's all I want you to hear. See what I described the process of learning to study the Bible. You've all done it right, but not usually in the Bible. When I was talking about those of you that write code, those of you that have started companies, those of you that have gone and got graduate degrees, those of you that, I mean, you are so committed to helping your kids either in ballet or music or violin or something. I mean the discipline, you are seeking it as silver.

You're pursuing it as hidden treasure. It's like, I want to be happy. I want to be fulfilled. I want my kids to be successful. I want to find the right person. And it's like, you know, you are people that go for it.

And yet that same intensity and discipline and work and focus and willingness to do whatever God says is almost nonexistent with most Christians. And we think we can read a little verse and pray a little prayer and that we're going to have streams of living water and it doesn't work. So what kind of questions do you ask once you're willing?

Let me give these to you. Questions that I ask when I read the Bible then are, is there a command to obey? In this case it's, come to me and drink.

So have you done that? This isn't a suggestion. This is the God of the universe, fully man, fully God on the earth saying, you, come and drink. If anyone believes and believe as an intellectual, trusting your life, following him, anyone believes in me out of your innermost being. Second is, question is, is there a promise to claim? Well, there's a big promise here in verse 38, streams of living water will flow from where? From within you.

It's a huge promise. So you ask yourself, am I experiencing that? He promised it, so well, it's not just some experience, it's if I'll search for him as for silver and I'll make Christ the priority like a hidden treasure. If I would pursue God the way I'm pursuing my business, if I would pursue God the way I'm trying to raise my kids, if I would pursue God, guess what would happen?

Inside of you, streams of living water. And it's not just his word, he lives inside of other Christians. There's some Christians that you never sit down, have heart to heart, absolutely vulnerable, authentic conversations and do life with other Christians and so you miss the Jesus that lives in them and they miss the Jesus that lives in you. I mean, some of the direction God wants to give you is through them, so I ask myself, there's a command, there's a promise. The third thing I do is I ask, is there an example to follow? In verse 31, there was all these people with all this stuff, many of them put their faith in him.

Maybe that's you. Have you put your faith in him? Certainly for salvation, for your sins to be forgiven, have you as you sit here on a certain day at a certain time, I remember or I have said, I'm in need and you're God, I'm gonna turn from my self-focused control or sort of passive, I'll do my life, God, you stay over there, to I need you, please forgive me, Christ come into my life. Have you done that? And for those of us that have done that, are you still, are you believing? Are you trusting him to meet your needs or have you come to him by grace and now you got it, I got it, God. You run the universe, I got this one taken care of.

Anyone else do that? Now here's the thing, please listen carefully. I am astounded and amazed at the level of denial that I can have in my own life. If you would have said to me, okay, are there commands to obey and promises?

Yes. Well, one of the commands is that we honor the Sabbath principle, that one day out of seven, you realize the world can live without you and you get refreshed and you don't work. Twenty-four hours out of 168, the world can go on without you. It's a gift from God and it's a statement of faith, but it's a weird statement of faith.

It's like running an internet company and your company says, we're only gonna be online six out of every seven days, but we need to make as much money as everyone else. See, that's what the Sabbath is about. It's not about don't do this, don't do that, it's about trust, it's about faith. And so God, as I was whining, said, so Chip, how are you doing? Oh, if you would have asked me, I'd say, oh, man, I believe in Sabbath. On Fridays, it's my day off and I don't look at my email hardly and I don't look at many calls barely and I try to really, I mean, really take a day off and I'm pretty religious about it, I mean, in a good way. I went back five Fridays, I actually, God's speaking to me and I look at my calendar and it was like, you're a liar. You're absolutely convinced that you obey the Sabbath and for five weeks and a half, so for six weeks you've not had a day off and you're asking me why you're sick? Huh? Huh?

You know what it is, it's God. I mean, I think I heard a gentle voice like, Chip, you are stupid. But why do you think you're sick? You haven't obeyed me. Well, why haven't you obeyed me?

I'm going to exaggerate just mildly, but not much. Well, I haven't obeyed you because you don't understand how important I am. You don't understand that, I mean, without me, how could have those events ever happened and I had to do this and I had to do that and they were just exceptions because I'm so important and I matter so much. When I violate the Sabbath or any other command, at the heart of it is almost always my own pride and my own arrogance and I just repented. I repented.

I said, okay, God, my denial is over. I want to obey you. I'm willing. I'll do whatever you say.

Five different speaking things came the very next week. No, no, no, no, no. I want to have a healthy soul. I want to be a good husband. I want to love my grown kids.

I'm going to love my grandkids. I want to be a good pastor. I want to have margin in my life. I want to come refreshed to give God's word.

I want to be a good teammate on our staff. I can't do that and disobey God. Does it make sense? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Follow in just a second. But let me ask you, do you feel bombarded by negative, depressing, or even sinful thoughts? If you want some help overcoming them, join us after the teaching as Chip talks about the importance of renewing our minds with God's word and highlights a resource that can help you take every thought captive. Stick around to learn more. Well, with that, here again is Chip. Notice there's an example to follow.

Nicodemus, he went public, didn't he? I mean, I think there's a way to do that, but there's an example there. I realize I need, literally at times, this session is really helping me, this counseling session. I'm just thinking, God, I didn't plan to share quite this much. But I just want to admit to you that there's times where I'm not bold in my faith because I care more what people think than God thinks. Does anyone else struggle with that? Then I'll go through a season, and so I'll have to discipline myself and say, okay, Lord, for the next seven days or next 10 days, I'm going to let someone know in a winsome, kind, loving way, and maybe I'm going to buy him coffee or I'm going to do something for someone, that I'm a follower of Jesus. Because little by little, if I'm not, pretty soon you get inside this little cul-de-sac with all your Christian friends. How will people that are longing and are thirsty hear about the living Christ if we don't tell them? And we tell them with our life, we tell them with our relationships, but we also tell them with our mouth. Last page, because here's some barriers to receiving God's promise. Barrier number one is familiarity. His brothers don't believe.

Why? You grew up with him. There's times I'll be in the Bible, and I'll have this, you know, I'll be reading, and oh, I got that memorized. So God doesn't speak to me.

It's so familiar. Some of you have been around church all your life, and church basically has become, yeah, go to church. I understand it. Be a good person. You know, I'm better than most people morally.

I know I've got a few issues. But there's no power. There's no satisfaction. There's no excitement.

There's no adventure. Because you're just so familiar. It's just become kind of like a moral code, a formula, instead of a supernatural adventure with the living God, his Spirit living in you. The second reason is fear of what other people think. You know, verse 13, you know, a great many people.

No one would say anything publicly, because so many of us are more concerned about what other people think than what God thinks. I actually, I will often, and by the way, I still struggle with this. So if you're thinking, oh gosh, that's me.

Yeah, it's me too. And sometimes I'll just say, okay, every day for the next 10 days, I'm going to do something somewhere where I go public with my faith in a winsome way. I mean, it's not like, hey, did you see my praise the Lord sticker on the back of my car?

Or hey, here's a big Bible. What do you think? You know. But I mean, in very winsome ways, I had a moment yesterday. You know, I was behind a guy and I didn't know it, but I kind of inadvertently, the bagel shop, and I think I dished him. And I kind of, you know how you feel, like I didn't mean to, they were looking at something and so I got my coffee and this and that.

And I just had this little prompting. And he had, they were with his two kids and he started to pull out a bill and I put it back and I just, hey, I want to take care of all of us. And he looked at me like, wow, I think I kind of dished you. He goes, no, no, no, you didn't.

We were just still deciding this and that. And he looked at me like, what drug are you on? And I just told him, I said, you know, I think God just really wants to bless you today. He said, and you know what?

It was like, click. When we're public and loving and winsome with our faith, it doesn't turn people off. We've got a whole generation of Christians that think that if you really go public, you'll turn people off. People are literally dying to hear.

The third is unwillingness to obey. I mean, I couldn't hear God's voice. I remember I was doing a Bible study on a college campus when I used to be a basketball coach and I would play basketball, pick up basketball in the gym and then we'd go to a guy's dorm room and we'd pass out Gospel of John and we'd just read a chapter out loud and talk about it. I didn't preach.

I didn't teach. I'd just ask questions. What do you guys think it says? And we did, you know, John 1, John 2, John 3, John 4, something like that.

And this guy comes to me and goes, I'll be playing basketball. I'm not coming to the, I'm not going to come to the Bible study tonight. I said, okay, that's good.

None of them were Christians, by the way. I said, well, why? He said, because I can't keep reading this stuff. So what do you mean you can't keep reading this stuff? He said, look, I've, I've, I'm starting to get it. I keep reading this. I can't keep living the way I am. I said, well, so what do you mean?

He goes, look, man, can I just give it to you straight? I'm living with my girlfriend. And if I keep reading this, I'm going to come to a point where either it's Jesus or my girlfriend or it's Jesus and sex. And I just want you to know, I'm going to go on record. It's girlfriend and sex, not Jesus. But if I keep reading this stuff, it's messing with me. And I just said, you know something?

Thanks for being so honest. And then I just took a moment. I said, now kind of from what we've learned, if you ever wanted to believe in Jesus, cause you know, this is a potential someday, some way, this may not really work out with this girlfriend. And you might find there's something even more important sex in your life. I know it's hard to believe at 19, but, and then I had him share the gospel with me.

So I wanted to know for sure. And then I said, Hey, you can play ball with this, aren't you? So you don't need to be the Holy Spirit. You just need to love people, love people and get them in God's word. Let him speak to them. But see he was unwilling to obey.

But what I liked is he was honest enough to say it. The fourth reason people don't believe is just ignorance. You know, that, that idea, you know, the false presupposition in verses 25 to 31, where they said the Messiah, when he comes, we'll just poof out of nowhere. Well, that was a tradition by the rabbis and the oral tradition. So they believed that the Messiah was just going to come out of thin air. So they rejected Jesus. The Bible never said that. The Bible never said that at all. But so some people reject Christ because they have ideas about him that aren't true.

Number five there is, or actually I did five, I'll do four, superficial assessment or evaluation. You know, the one group who talked about, wait a second, you know, you had this guy walk on the Sabbath so you can't be from God. And he said, stop judging superficially. This happened as a new Christian. I've been a Christian about eight months and it was on the basketball team and a guy who was anti-anti-God and especially Christian said, you believe in God? Yes. You believe in the Bible? Yes.

You believe the Bible is true? Yes. Do you eat meat? Yes. You hypocrite!

Maybe a 6'8 so it was like, you know. I said, what are you talking about? Doesn't the Bible say thou shall not kill? You kill animals to eat meat. See, you're all hypocrites.

And I went back like, oh my gosh, maybe he's right. You know, I did a little research and the Bible doesn't say thou shall not kill. I mean, it says thou shall not kill. But there's a word for kill in Hebrew and there's a word for murder.

The Bible says thou shall not murder. But he had a superficial assessment of what he thought the Bible taught and as a result, rejected God, rejected the Bible and kind of put me in a tailspin. See, here's my concern and the reason I'm going through John and trying to help all of us really learn what it says, my fear is a lot of you have a very superficial understanding and you think you know what this says and you're listening to all kind of things and all kind of people and you have legitimate thirsts and some of you are so dag-gone smart and so dag-gone gifted that you actually figure out how to quench your thirst and you're successful and you're smart and you become wealthy and you have great positions and you end up with what everyone else wants in life and then you look in the mirror and you look down on your soul and it's empty and you can't figure it out because you say, I believe in God.

I go to church 1.6 times a month. But the fact of the matter is you're not searching, you're not studying the Bible like you learned to read code and develop code. You're not studying the Bible the way you did a musical instrument. You're not studying the Bible the way you had your kids doing ballet or athletics. You're not studying the Bible the way that you started out with physics. You're not taking the Bible the way you did when you were in that startup and everybody knew that you need to give your life to a startup or they don't work. And God is saying in the words of Jesus, come and drink of me.

Come and drink. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the message you just heard, Jesus Offers Satisfaction, is from the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series, Follow. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. When Jesus called his disciples, he used two simple words, follow me. So what does it look like to follow Jesus today? Well, join us as we uncover the answer as Chip opens his Bible to a section in the Gospel of John. Learn what chapters six through 10 tell us about being content, humble, bold, and in awe of Christ's power and how all of those ideas tie into our decision to follow Jesus.

You're not going to want to miss a single program. Well, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is with me now to share a quick word. I'll be right back in just a minute with some specific application to today's message.

But first, let me ask you a question. Do you feel overwhelmed right now? Have circumstances or events or maybe a relationship have you feeling very anxious?

How do you break out of it? Well, Living on the Edge, we've come up with a counter attack, and we call them truth cards. Each card has a lie that we're tempted to believe, and then the truth is from the book of John. And on these cards, you read them over slowly and meditate, and what you find, it will break the pattern in your thinking and allow you to have the peace that God wants you to have. For example, a common lie, when I'm afraid and anxious about the future and chaos in the world, it proves I'm not a good Christian. Then you flip it over and here's the truth.

Fear and concern about world events and personal challenges is normal. Jesus understands and promises always to be with us. John 14 one. These cards will help you discover how to break the pattern of lies and experience the truth.

Amen, Chip. Well, to order your set of our Gospel of John truth cards, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. As you read through and meditate on these 21 cards, you'll expose the lies we've bought or fallen into and replace them with the rock-solid truth of God's Word. To learn more about this helpful tool, visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap special offers. Well, here now is Chip with that application he promised. In today's teaching, we said that if you put God's Word into practice, I mean, that's what it means to abide in Him, that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Isn't that an amazing promise? It's not just reading the Bible, not just hearing the Bible. It's taking in God's Word, putting it into practice. You will experientially know the truth and the truth will have the power to set you free. But then we talked about the barriers that keep us from knowing and applying the truth, so those are pretty important.

Let me take just a minute as we wrap up today's program and just highlight. And you think as I go through these, ask yourself, which one of these barriers might be a barrier in my life? The first is familiarity. You know, we think we've got it. We're a little bit prideful and, you know, hey, I know that passage, I know that verse, and you kind of just traffic in the truth. The other is fear. We're so concerned about what other people think, we don't act on what we know.

The third was disobedience. I mean, we all face this. It's just this is what it says. I know I need to apologize to that person or I need to confess that sin or get help with that addiction. And we just say, you know, by our behavior, we just say I'm not going to do it. The fourth is ignorance. I mean, so many believers don't know the promises of God. They don't know what God has to offer. And then finally, I just call it a superficial assessment.

We jump to wrong conclusions and we're very, very easily swayed. Of those, which one of those today might be a barrier to you experiencing God's truth and freedom? Have you got it? Can I encourage you to own it out loud, confess it to God? And the big word in the Bible is repent. Turn from that and say, Lord, I need help with that. I've been ignorant or I'm disobedient. And meet God.

Ask for his help. In fact, tell one person today what the barrier is and what your next step is and see if God doesn't show up in a fresh way. Amen. Thanks, Chip. And before we go, the points he just reviewed come right from his message notes, a great resource to help you get the most out of every program. You'll get Chip's outline, the scripture he references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you hear. So before you listen again, let me encourage you to download Chip's message notes at livingontheedge.org, under the broadcasts tab, app listeners tap fill in notes. Well, thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drewy, and I hope you'll join us again next time.