We have never been more connected digitally and yet we've never felt more deeply alone. Loneliness is an epidemic. Today we want to discover why. and how that gets solved. Stay with me.
Thank you for being with us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip serves as our Bible teacher with his global teaching and discipleship ministry helping Christians develop an authentic faith.
Well, in just a minute, we'll wrap up our message, The Longing for Home, taught by our guest speaker, Ryan Inglam, lead pastor at Awakening Church in San Jose, California. Last time, Ryan explained how the perfection Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden was only a glimpse of what awaits us in heaven someday. Today he'll continue to walk through the four ways our hearts ache to be reunited with God and our eternal home. But before we begin, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge or you want to learn more about what we do, go to livingonthege.org. You'll find resources on tons of topics and countless programs to enjoy.
Or if you prefer, the Chip Ingram app is also a great way to get plugged in with our ministry.
Well, if you have the Bible, go again to Genesis chapter 2 as we dive into the remainder of Ryan Ingram's powerful message. 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. 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.
We are 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 were created to walk with God in the cool of the day. The witness. 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. And what was Jesus' final promise to his disciples? Before he ascended. And behold. I Yeah.
With you. even to the end of the age. Think about this. Your greatest need is to be fully known. and fully loud.
God fights. Fully knows everything about you. Nothing is hidden. From him. Every secret thought.
Every emotion Everything that you think, if I showed to someone else, they would reject me. He knows all of it. And he said, I'm coming for you. And not I'm coming to get you. That's how we hear it.
I'm coming for you. Woo! I'm coming for you. That's not what he did. Love compelled him.
Love compelled him. Love compelled him. Love compelled him. Love compelled him. Love compelled him towards you.
Love compelled him towards you. He looked at all of you and his heart breaks that you're not with him and that you're living in the brokenness of that. And love compelled him towards you. You are fully known and fully loved, and that's the reason Jesus came. Our hearts ache.
for permanence. Because we were created for a home that lasts. Our hearts ache for presence because we are created to be with God. and each other. And believe it or not, our hearts ache for pleasure.
There's these aches and longings inside of us. And somewhere along the way, we got the idea that pleasure is bad, that following Jesus means white-knuckling our way through life, denying our every desire. By the way, Eden wasn't just functional, it was pleasurable. It was meant to be enjoyed. Genesis 2:9.
And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye, good for food. In the middle of the garden, were a tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By the way, you know what Eden means? Delight. The Garden of Delight.
Yeah. It was Pleasure without perversion. It was love without distortion. It is almost impossible for us to fathom the beauty and the wonder of that reality. It was love without strings attached, without self-interest.
It was pleasure without manipulation or somehow. Using somebody for your own good. It was the garden of delight. Why? Because we were made for joy.
Psalm 16:11 says, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The egg for pleasure is actually an egg for God. C.S.
Lewis would say it this way. It seems that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea, we are too far easily. Pleased.
In the presence of God is fullness of joy. See, the great lie that we believe in is somehow God is holding out on me. No good thing, Scripture says, do I withhold from those. I love heartaches for permanence. for presence.
for pleasure. You're listening to Living on the Edge. Get back to our series, The Longing for Home, in just a minute. But first, if this teaching has ministered to you, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular financial support goes a long way to help us encourage pastors, create resources, and share Jesus with today's youth.
Visit livingontheedge.org to learn how to support us.
Well, with that, here again is our guest teacher, Ryan Ingram. The final ache of home is the heartaches for peace. In Hebrew it's the word shalom. Shalom is more than just the absence of strife and chaos. or conflict.
It's the presence of wholeness. That all is well, everything as it should be. Yeah. Genesis 2.15 says, The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden.
Now, if you're carefully following along in the notes, you'd notice in 2.8, it's almost like a restatement. But in verse 15 that word put is a different word than earlier. That word means a place of rest and safety, dedication in God's presence. In a world of chaos, confusion, uncertainty. Brokenness.
conflict. We often feel fragmented, overworked, stressed, driving, always on, the inbox never stops, the pressure never lifts, the mind never slows. The heart aches for peace, like the sense of well-being, that all is as it should be. Why? Because we're made for wholeness.
We want that. Shalom. That peace. That safety of home. where all is as it should be, no worry.
And in the midst of our stress and our chaos, our uncertainty, Jesus offers a better way. And he says, come to me. Come to me. Are you weary? Are you burdened?
Come to me. Are you lonely? Come to me. Is your heart aching? Come to me.
Are you grieving? Come to me. Are you confused? Come to me, are you doubting? Come to me.
Are you struggling right now and wandering through life? Come to me. And I'll give you rest. I'll give you sure. All of us have this God-sized hole with.
Then us. This ache that nothing else can satisfy. And Jesus invites us and says, I am the wholeness that your heart needs. Come to me. Take my yoke upon you.
Born from me. I'm gentle. humble heart. You'll find rest. For your soul.
We spend our days looking for something. or some one to fill the ache of our soul. to bring wholeness to our life, to mend the brokenness. that we cover up from every one. else And so what did I do with the ache within me?
C.S. Lewis once again wrote these. words if I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is I was made for another. World. We are all spiritually homesick, friends.
We all have an egg, a God-size hole. that only he can feel. And the home my heart aches for is not just a place, but a person. And Jesus, after he said that he goes to prepare a place for us, told his disciples, I am the way. I'm the way back home.
I am the truth. I am the truest thing, the part of your soul that you've been longing for. I am life itself. No one comes to the Father. Except through me.
You were made for Eden. You are made for God. And Jesus. Jesus is the way back home and He is home itself. As we close, I just want to share a story.
I've shared it a few times before, most of you have heard it. Years ago, it was on a Sunday morning. I was getting up early to Prepared, I was going to head to a coffee shop. I come out of my door and I see my neighbors. Truck, there's a guy standing next to it, leaning up against it.
At first, I thought it was my neighbor Jerry, he's a construction guy, and so I thought.
Okay, he's up early, but then I notice it's not him.
Now I'm afraid somebody's breaking into Jerry's truck. And so I hop in my car. to pull right up alongside him because if he really is breaking into the car. I don't want to be like, well, I want a fast getaway. Let's just say that.
I want to call the cops and just go. I pull up to him, and the guy's leaning against it, and he's got his phone, and I just go. Hey, man. You okay? He kinda ignores me, fit on it with his phone and I.
Ask again, like, hey man. You okay? Then I realized maybe I'm asking the wrong question. And so I said, hey, man. Do you know where you're That?
And I guess he had called his girlfriend, and he's like crying. He's like, All right. Can't believe it You guys left me. I've been wandering all night long, and there's this nice man talking to me. Apparently, he was at some party, you know, was drunk, walked outside, got lost, wandered the wild streets of Will Glen all night long.
And he was freaked out by himself and he's talking to his girlfriend. And then he says this line, no lie, it's pretty funny. He says There's this nice man talking to me. I think he's sent from God. I'm like, well, I am a pastor, you know.
And so I looked at him and said. Do you need a ride home? He's like Yeah. Mm-hmm. Come on, get in the car.
And as we got in the car and we're driving and Started to have a conversation. He began to just say this line over and over again. I can't believe you found me. You save me. And you're bringing me home.
Like, you found me. I was lost. I was scared. And you found me. And you didn't just find me, you saved me.
And now you're bringing me. Huh. And the truth is, the ache of our soul, there's so many of us that we just feel like we've been wandering in life and we're lost and we're just going through the motions and we just are desperate for somebody to find us. And Jesus says, I've come to find you. I've come, I've come, I've come.
I came to seek and save that Which is lost. And then there's just this reality for our hearts where we got to realize that at some point we don't need help and we don't need advice, we need to be saved. We settle for advice, friends. We settle for self-help, minor tweaks to try to modify our lives to get better. And at some point, we got to say, I can't, but he can.
And then the invitation. He had to get in the car. And you're bringing me. Hmm. What if the ache The longing Of your heart isn't a design flaw.
What if it's pointing? You home? What if it's leading you? to the one you are made for. The one who can sell the egg.
The one who came for you. As we close, I just would love for you to pray with me. And the truth is, there's so many in this room who are far from God and feel like, I don't feel like I can come back to him. And today. His words are come to me.
And then it's better than that. I came for you. And there's those that you're just like that young man sitting by the car, and you've just been wandering. There's been an egg and a hole you can't quite fill. And you've never said yes to Jesus.
You've never experienced his grace, his mercy, his life, his hope, his peace. His wholeness. And this is the moment. This is the moment where you say yes and you experience new life erupting. inside of you.
If that's where you're at, would you pray with me this simple prayer? Ah, Jesus. I ache. I have a longing, and I feel like I've been wandering, and I'm hurting, and I need you. I believe you came from me.
You died for me. You've rose again from the grave for me. To bring me home. To bring life. And so today, Jesus, would you come and make your home in my heart?
Would you come and make me new? Bye. Before we go any further today, Could you relate to the empty and the longing feeling that Ryan described today. Maybe you've chased money or sex or career or prestige. But if you're really honest, today you realize you haven't found what you're looking for.
Nothing will fill that hole in your heart. other than the person? of Jesus. And in the great fall where sin entered, it broke everything. And Jesus wants you to know that when He died on the cross, He paid for your sin, all of it.
And it is a gift to you, but like every gift, it must be received. Can I encourage you, even if you're in your car and have to pull off the road and get some composure, at this moment say, Lord Jesus, I believe. You're the answer to my life. I admit that I have sinned, and on this day I ask you to forgive me for all my sins based on your work for me on the cross. Lord, your word says you're standing at the door and knocking at my heart, and that if I would open the door, you would come in and you would live with me, and I with you.
and it would be forever. And so at this moment I ask you, Lord Jesus, come into my life and help me to walk with you and experience your grace, satisfy the deepest longings in my heart until I see you face to face in heaven. Amen. And if you just prayed that with me, could I encourage you to text or call the greatest Christian you know and tell them what you just did? And then go to our website, LivingonThe Edge, all one word, livingonthedge.org, and there's some information that we'll give you absolutely free to help you walk in your new life with the Lord Jesus.
Welcome to the family. Thanks, Chip.
Well, if you prayed to receive Christ, we do have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was created specifically for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or visiting livingonthege.org. Then clicking the new believers button. That's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.
Let us help you get started in your faith journey.
Well, Chip's still with me in studio. And Chip, for the past several weeks, we've asked our listeners to partner with us in the work we're involved in all around the world. And now that our mid-year match is over, you wanted to say something to everyone.
Well, Dave, I just wanted to pause. I mean, to really pause and tell you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. You know, every time a person makes a financial gift, a spiritual transaction occurs. In other words, something actually happens in a person's heart.
And I speak to those of you who gave. You gave, you've responded, you invested in Living on the Edge. And I want you to know that as you've invested, we're going to invest in the lives of people here and all around the world. It really matters. And we are super grateful.
Thank you, each one of you, who prayed and said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And then you followed his lead. The final numbers will be on our website as soon as we get all the mail that comes in. But I just want to say thank you. Thank you so very much for hearing from God, responding to God, and for being so generous.
Amen. Well, we truly celebrate every gift we've received and are excited to see how God will use it to motivate Christians to live like Christians everywhere.
So from the entire staff here at Living on the Edge, thank you for your support. As we close, do you want to deepen your connection to God amid your busy life? Then take Chip with you by subscribing to our daily podcast. With a few simple taps on your phone, you can access the full-length versions of our latest series. And if you're always on the go, download a handful and listen to them at your own pace.
Let us help you grow your faith. Search for Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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.
