The Longing for Home, Part 1

I heard a message recently that caused me to stop in my tracks. I'm a pastor. I had studied this passage for many, many years. But I had never seen it in my life the way it was taught. and there was a sense of truth and connection. that I just couldn't hardly believe. You've got to hear it, and that's today.

Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Our mission is to inspire Christians to be genuine followers of Jesus and to empower them to be active disciple makers in our world. As many of you know, Chip's our regular Bible teacher for this daily program, but for the next two broadcasts, he's passing the mic to his son, Ryan Ingram. He's the lead pastor at Awakening Church in San Jose, California. Today and tomorrow, Ryan will be in Genesis chapter 2 describing the perfect environment God created for Adam and Eve. And why, since sin entered the world, our hearts ache to be reunited with our Creator.

But before we begin, let me encourage you to download our message notes to help you get the most out of these programs. They contain Ryan's outline, scripture references, and much more. Get them by going to the Broadcasts tab at livingonthege.org, at listeners, tap Fill-in Notes.

Well, if you're ready, here's Ryan with his talk, The Longing for Home. Let me ask you. What do you do about the ache within you? What do you do with just that ache? You're sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by people. But nobody actually knows you. You're scrolling through social media at midnight. Everyone's. Highlight real, yet you Feel insane. You moved into a new apartment and you don't know your neighbors' names. That new apartment's now two, three years old. You still don't know their name in... They don't know yours.

You're in back-to-back Zoom calls all day long, and not one person asks, How are you doing? There's a quiet ache under all the noise. A restlessness. We live in a world in a day and age where we're more connected than ever, yet, somehow, we are more alone. Packed calendars, endless scrolling, and yet the ache. remains.

I'd like to suggest to you. What if your longing isn't a problem to fix? but a sign pointing you home. What if that ache is there for a purpose? C. S. Lewis in the classic Mere Christianity writes this. Our lifelong nostalgia. Lifelong nostalgia. Our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off. To be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside. Is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real. Situation.

That there's this ache. This longing, somehow sitting on the outside, peering in. That word nostalgia was first coined by Swiss medical student Johannes Hoffer, where he took two Greek words and put them together: gnostos, meaning homecoming, and algas, meaning pain. This sense of pain, this ache.

Today, the sermon title is The Longing for Home. Would you go ahead and say that to your neighbor? The Longing for Home. The truth is we're all spiritually homesick, aren't we? We all carry with us this ache. No matter what kind of home we grew up in, we have a longing for some idea of home.

Tim Keller writes this about home. Home is a powerful but elusive concept. The strong feelings that surround it reveal some deep longing within us for a place that absolutely fits and suits us. Where we can be or perhaps find our true selves. Yet it seems no real place or actual family ever satisfies these yearnings. though many situations arouse them.

And so we live. With the sake. This longing. A spiritual homesickness. Mm-hmm. In Genesis 2, we find the original home for humanity. The place God made for humanity's flourishing. Genesis 2:4 says, This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Now, Genesis 1 is the macro vision of how God created everything and why it all matters. Genesis 2, we zoom in to the creation of humanity. Verse 5. Now, no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living body. Beam. Now, the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Verse 10. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters.

The name of the first is the Pishan. It winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there was gold. The gold of that land is good, which I generally think is gold is good. Thank you. Aromatic resin and onyx are there also. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush.

The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Ashur, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to care for it. And the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat it from it, you will certainly die.

The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord formed out of the ground all the wild animals, all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. Then the man said, This is now bone on my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no. Shame. What do you do about the ache? Was in you. And what if the longing isn't a problem to fix? but a sign pointing you home. In Genesis 2, we come across four eggs. Four signposts returning us to our original home. The home we were truly made for.

The first thing I want you to notice is the heart aches. for permanence. The heart aches for permanence. We live in a transient, ever-changing world. Fast-paced, non-stop. We move more than any other time in human history. In fact, millennials and Gen Z move than any previous generation.

The average millennial moves every two years. Psychologists say of this time and age that there is a rootlessness. A constant sense of disconnection leading to anxiety and depression. We swap cities, careers, communities, hoping the next one will finally be it. The heart aches for permanence.

We do this relationally. Love immediately wants it to be permanent, doesn't it? Like when you start to fall in love, you want to Love forever. In fact, we do this with friendships. It's a BFF, it's best friends. Forever. In fact, we even do this with homes. It's like that's a starter home, but that's not my... Forever home.

Why? Because the heart, we have this aching in a fleeting world that passes by, where the sands are shifting underneath us and we feel uncertain, unstable. We long for permanence. In Genesis 2:8 says, Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed.

See, God created a place of perfection for humanity to flourish with him. Forever. This was the intended space for flourishing for humanity for all time in the presence of God in perfection. We're made, by the way, for a home that lasts. We're made. for a home. That last.

Eden was more than a location, it was a reality where everything was right. no loneliness, no shame, no striving, life with God full and flourishing. We are created to walk with God in the cool of the day. To work, to cultivate the earth without toil, to live in deep, unbroken relationships.

It was home. of the truest sense. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And before we return you to today's message, are you tired of feeling anxious about what's happening in our world or your circumstances? Well, stick around at the end of the program to learn about a powerful resource we have that'll encourage your soul and help you experience real lasting peace.

You won't want to miss it. But for now, here's Ryan to continue his talk. I like how Ronald Rawheizer in Sacred Fire says it. We all want at the end of the day is home. Rest. someone to be comfortable with. Some place to be comfortable in, a home, eternal rest, deeper than our wanderlust and desire for adventure is the desire to find our way back home.

Ultimately, we want adventure only so that we can savor it and tell it around the fireplace. The older I get, the stronger my ache for permanence grows. Because the more I see how fleeting life is. How fast things go.

This last weekend, my family and I, we got to go to the snow. We hadn't been to the snow in three years. We picked the one weekend there was a blizzard. It was fantastic and scary all at the same time. We get up there Thursday, Friday, like four feet of snow had dumped.

We're trying to snowboard. I've never been out there like this before, by the way. I mean, you couldn't see at times, you know, 40, 50 feet in front of you. You're on the ski lift, the wind is whipping your face, the snow's hitting you, it's frigid cold.

That night, my brother and I are sitting on a couch. And you know, one of my favorite features about the phone, at least the iPhone, I don't know about you Android people, is I get these memories that pop up. On my photos? No lie, I've been in a coffee shop with a memory pop up and I just start bawling. I'm just like, oh my god. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so I'm sitting with my brother and a memory pops up and it was a family photo with our entire my side of the Ingram family. And I just look at, it was 13 years ago on that day. We were taking this photo and seeing 13 years ago the ages of all of our kids and our families.

And I pass it over to my brother and he's like, no way. And we're like on the verge of bawling. And then he's showing everybody else. But it just reminds us that life's fleeting. Even the very best moments of our lives, those moments that you try to capture to feel like, oh, that might have been it, that was home, it's only a picture now.

It's a memory. It's a thing you revisit in your mind and the emotions come back, but you can't quite hold on to it, can you? Because the heart aches. for permanence.

And then Jesus reminds us of something so powerful and profound. And it's some of his final words to his disciples before he's to go to the cross. He says, Let not your heart be troubled. And then he gives them this beautiful promise. My father's house has many rooms.

You want to talk about home? Let's talk about my dad's home. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, I would not have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. Like, I want you to know that on this planet where you're traveling, there's a reason it doesn't feel fully like home.

Like, you get glimpses of it, but it's not home. But I'm actually going to prepare a home for you that is full and final and secure and eternal. And if I go. And prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Yeah. Our hearts ache for permanence. And part of that egg points us to the reality: we are created and designed for a home that lasts. We are actually created for Eden. We are created for the garden.

And we live in the disrupted in-between. And Jesus said, I came to restore that, and I want to bring you back home forever. And then there's the ache. that our heartaches for presence.

We ache for presence. Experts say that we live in what's called a loneliness epidemic. 50% of adults in America report to experiencing acute loneliness. Half of our population. The Surgeon General says that this is actually a health crisis.

And the impact on our health of loneliness has a similar impact as if you're smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The heart Eggs. Four Presence. And we live in a day and age where we're constantly connected and we have the illusion of relationship, and yet we live in isolation. In loneliness.

Genesis 2:7 says, The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living. Beam. Our deepest desire is to be fully known. and fully loved.

Our greatest fear is to be fully known and rejected. And so we hide. We curate. We cover up what is deemed unlovely so that it will be accepted in some form, but we're never. Full way now.

And then God breathed. The Hebrew word carries intimacy. There's no distant decree, cosmic snap of a finger. This was touch, intentionality, nearness. God formed humanity like an artist shaping clay with bare hands, tender and present.

And then did you notice like all that talk about rivers? What is that about? See, what this biblical text is describing is The way the royal palace would design the garden. They would always design it around a spring welling up that would pour out and water the garden and the grounds.

So, the Garden of Eden wasn't just a place for humanity. It was the king's residence. It was God's residence and presence. It's like you were designed and hardwired to live and be at home in the residence of the king, in his presence.

We were made to be with God. and with each other. You're hardwired. Our hearts desperately long for the witness. You know, friends are rare these days. Not because they've diminished in importance, but because we've increased in speed.

We fill our lives with noise, screen, and schedules. But what we crave is real embodied Presence. And the entire arc of the Bible. Is all about restoring the presence we lost in Eden. Like we're created to walk with God in the cool of the day. The withness.

And so the entire arc of the Bible. It moves us that direction. of intimacy and presence lost and God working his way. To be the with us, God. I mean, we sing the songs about Emmanuel at Christmastime. Guess what? That's true not just then, it's true all year long.

Like there would be one who comes that is God with us that has been God's heart and longing from the beginning and Jesus steps into history fully God fully man with us This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

You've been listening to the first part of our guest teacher Ryan Ingram's message: The Longing for Home. Chip will join us here in the studio with some additional thoughts about today's program in just a minute.

For more information about our ministry or our many resources, go to livingonthege.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org.

Well, our Bible teacher Chip Ingram is in the studio with me now. And Chip, in a world often defined by turmoil, anxiety, that restlessness Ryan talked about today, where can we find genuine peace?

Well, Dave, the world teaches that peace is your circumstances working out. Being financially secure or having conflict-free relationships. But the fact of the matter is, there's chaos everywhere. It's in relationships, it's in finances, it's in racial issues.

Jesus, before he left, told his disciples that he was going to give them a gift. He said, My peace, my shalom, I give to you. And this is a peace that's more than an emotion or a feeling, this is a peace for purpose. For wholeness, for calmness.

It's the peace of God in the midst of everything. And because this is an important issue, I wrote a book where I walk people through the journey of when they become a Christian and the Holy Spirit lives within them, how they can experience God's peace.

How do you have peace in a financial crisis? How do you have peace when there is conflict in relationships? How do you have peace when crises and wars and economic issues that you can't control? It's possible.

In fact, Jesus promised it. But my experience is a lot of people don't know how to. To access the shalom of God that Jesus promised. This book is my very best effort to help regular, ordinary people in the midst of the chaos and the conflict of life to really experience peace.

Thanks, Chip. Well, to learn more about this insightful resource, I Choose Peace, visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Learn how to quiet the worries of your heart and the anxieties of this world and experience genuine peace that only Jesus offers.

Again, go to livingonthege.org or call 888-333-6003 for complete details about this book, I Choose Peace. App Listeners tap special offers.

Well, Chip, today your son Ryan talked about the longing our souls have for our eternal home. What thoughts did this teaching stir in you, and what reflections would you want to share with our listeners?

Dave, I have to tell you, two things came to my mind that struck me very, very deeply. Takeaway number one was we are longing for what God gave us originally, right? There was a place, and we long for an actual place, a place where things are right, a place where God is present, a place where we relate to other people without posing and manipulation.

And no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I can create an environment or I even receive blessing that's close to that. It always falls short. We belong in a place where everything's right. And so we try to get that here.

And I think much of our satisfaction is we forget you're never going to get it here. And all I want to say is this message helped me remember I can be content. With what I have in a home that will never deliver, but I have hope. I have hope that there is a place.

Second, How desperately we are in need of an accurate view of heaven. Jesus' hope to the disciples was: I'm going to prepare a place for you. Not just that I'm going to be there, I'm preparing a place. And it's not floating around or just an eternal worship service.

There's a real heaven with the real place where there's a real ground and a real earth and a real sky and real relationships and music and culture and life and work and the presence of God and a place. where we really belong.

And that's our hope. Application if you demand. that this place on earth delivers all that only heaven can deliver. you will be discontent for the rest of your life. Can I encourage you today? Thank God for all the things and all the people that you do have. and stop wishing. for all the things you don't have.

the longing will never be satisfied. Your thirst for that place will never be quenched until it's in the right place with the Lord Jesus in a place called heaven, and He wants it for everyone. That's absolutely right, Chip. Thanks.

And since he and Ryan have been talking about our eternal home, if you've been searching for solid biblical answers about heaven, let me encourage you to check out our resources for The Real Heaven. Whether you get Chip's popular book or the small group study, you'll walk away with a more accurate and exciting view of the place God's preparing for us.

For complete details for either of these resources, visit livingonthege.org and search for the real heaven. We'll listen in next time as Ryan Ingram wraps up his message, The Longing for Home. Until then, this is Dave Druy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.