The Four Great Invitations - Abide in Me, Part 1

Do you ever feel like God just isn't coming through for you?

Like the Christian life is so hard, so demanding, that you thought it was supposed to be filled with a lot more joy and peace and fun, and you're just not experiencing that? Well, stay with me. I've got a word you need to hear today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Well, today Chip continues our newest series, The Four Great Invitations, talking about a subject vital to a healthy relationship with God that we often overlook or dismiss. But before he shares that with us, let me encourage you to get Chip's message notes. Throughout this program he references a really helpful illustration that can only be found in his notes, so download them now under the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap fill in notes. Well, if you have a Bible handy, go down to John chapter 15 for Chip's talk, Abide in Me. I was with a, I call him a young guy, in between that 35 to 45. We were friends. He had come to Jesus.

He was seeking to follow Jesus. He had a good job, a beautiful family, a couple kids, and he called and said, you know, I'm really, really, really struggling. Could we get together?

And I said, sure. He says, how about, you know, some time? So we decided we'd play nine holes of golf, and as we're walking along and playing golf, we get to about the third or fourth hole, and I've heard about the frustrations in his marriage, and in weak moments, I know I'm drinking too much, and you know, my kids, there's pressures over here and I'm over here. Work is just so demanding, and if I get up and I spend time with God and read the Bible, then I don't work out, but if I work out, I don't spend time with God, and then he just looked at me and goes, it's just not supposed to be this hard.

It's just not supposed to be this hard. This whole Christian thing is so hard, and I happen to know his background, and he played college football, and then he spent some time in the Arena League. He was a really, really good athlete, and I just was listening most of the time, and just casually I said, could I just ask you a question? He said, yeah, sure. I said, he happened to be a tight end, I said, when you go and you run, you know, a slant, and you come across and you catch the ball, and a linebacker comes and levels you, do you get up and say, boy, that's not fair. That's really hard.

You shouldn't hit me like that. I said, do you remember all that you did growing up to get at the level that you are? And he said, well, yeah.

I said, was it hard? And then I said, you know something? We live in a really fallen world, and basically as you listened, he had struggles, and he had in a moment of time, honestly, deeply, authentically come to Jesus.

He found rest for his soul, and he was a part of God's family, and then he was on a journey to seek to follow him, but he was following him kind of out of his willpower. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to behave in the right way. I'm going to try and quote, be a good Christian.

So as I start, I want you to listen very, very carefully. The Christian life is not a matter of doing more or behaving better. It's a matter of going deeper.

Let me say that again. The Christian life is not a matter of doing more or behaving better, but of going deeper. What my friend didn't have was any power in his life.

He didn't have the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit allowing the life of Christ, connecting him to his power so he could live it out. And there's few things more frustrating than trying to live the Christian life in the power of your own energy. If you were here in our last time together, I kind of ended it with the Christian life is not hard.

It's impossible, and the only one to live it is Jesus. And so here's his invitation. Invitation number one, come to me, and the promise is peace. Invitation number two was follow me, and the promise was purpose, direction, meaning, fulfillment.

And now you'll notice in your notes at the very top, the blank is abide in me. The promise is freedom. The promise is joy. The promise is power.

It's to abide literally means to stay connected to Jesus. What I recognize is a lot of people don't know what's this actually look like. I mean, in real life, because some of you are married and have marriage demands, and some of you are single, and you've got single demands, and you've all got work demands. And some people drink a little too much. Some people play videos a little too much. Some people do other things. In other words, it's so hard because there's three distractions you might jot these down. Number one, the first one why it's hard to abide is just write the word distractions. You're bombarded, I'm bombarded. In fact, we carry distraction in our back pocket most of the time, don't we?

Buzz, buzz, blink, blink, blink, right? The second thing is distorted desires. In a fallen world, in other words, if you are riding in the Tour de France, as they're going up the steep, steep hills, they're not saying, I wonder why this is hard.

It's very, very steep. I want you to know as you live your faith and following Jesus, it's uphill. This world isn't how God designed it to be since the fall. And so the distorted desires are the desires to take the gifts that God gives in place of the giver. So the desire for sex, for power, for popularity, for fame, for acceptance, for security, there's a world that offers that in ways that promise to satisfy, but it doesn't.

All those are good gifts in the right time and the right way as from God, we're the focus of the giver. And then the third one is discouragement. The enemy's number one goal is to get you to, I can't do this. I'm worth nothing.

I'm a failure. No one knows the thoughts I have inside. I can't, I don't think I can handle this anymore. Or, you know, I don't want to quit, so I'll just fake it, kind of. And we've all lived there. And so in your notes, what we have is Jesus teaching his disciples, where do you get the power?

How do you actually live this? Because he's about to leave. You'll notice in your notes, it says the context. Put a circle around the word context. Anytime you get a passage, you want to know what came before it, what came after it, and why is it here? And the context is the chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, before what's right here. In chapter 13, listen carefully, because we always think about the Lord's Supper and washing their feet, but the very first line is, I deeply desire to spend this time with you. Jesus wanted to be with them.

He washes their feet. Chapter 14, he desperately wants to be with them, so he says, I'm going to leave, but I'm going to prepare a place for you, because where I am, I want you to be with me, and I promise you will be. Chapter 15, now they've taken a walk, and as they've taken a walk, and there's a number of things, and there's vineyards, he pauses, and what we're going to look at quickly is he's going to use a metaphor, a picture, to say, I'm leaving physically, but I want you to stay connected to me, and he's going to say, my Father's the vine dresser. I am the true vine, the hope of Israel, and if you stay connected to me, in fact, everything that you've shared with me when I was here physically, it's going to be better.

Chapter 16 says, how does it get better? Is the Holy Spirit is actually going to dwell in you and manifest not only my presence, but the Father's presence, and then chapter 17, Jesus is praying for them, and Jesus is praying for us even right now. So let's imagine walking, we've sung a hymn, he's washed our feet, we don't quite understand, we're a bit confused about this death that's coming, and he says, I am the true vine, and my Father's the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because the word which I've spoken to you, abide in me, here's the invitation, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him, result, bears much fruit. Why? For apart from me, you can do nothing. That was where my friend was. He couldn't be more sincere, but he wasn't connected.

He was just trying really hard. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away, and then put a box around the next phrase, as a branch. I'll explain why in a minute, and dries up, and they gather them, and they cast them into the fire, and they are burned. The promise, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. When you're connected to him, and he's connected to you, your desires will align with God's desires, and you'll start asking him things, and you will see him answer vividly and powerfully. He goes on to say, my father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Now, notice the shift. It's abide in me. Now, it's abide in my love.

Well, how do you do that? If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I've kept my father's commandments, and abide in his love. He divides us abiding, not as just some ooey-gooey emotional feeling, but there's this connection, and there's a connection that as we obey his word, by the power of his spirit, we abide in his love. Then there's a purpose clause.

Why? What's the purpose of this abiding? These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. I don't know about many of you, but I don't at times meet a lot of Christians that are really joyful. I meet a lot of Christians that talk about all their problems, all their struggles, how terrible the world is.

This group of followers is going to go into the most hostile environment. Eleven of them will sacrifice their life, and the greeting card of the early church in the midst of suffering and injustice and all kind of difficulty was this unquenchable, supernatural, non-understandable joy that they had, and it wasn't because circumstances were good. They had this connection, his presence, his personality, his comfort, his encouragement, even in the midst of what was happening there.

But what's happened in our world is a subtle shift happened, and the shift that happened, especially in America, and then it spread all over the place, is that actually the real joy in life is if your life works out. You find the right person, and you're healthy, and you're upwardly mobile, and things go your way, and you have these expectations that it'll be wonderful, and Jesus is sort of like your self-help genie, that Jesus helped me get what I want. And a lot of people are deeply discouraged with God because he hasn't come through. I prayed about this, and I wanted that, and I'm still single. I prayed about this, and I wanted that, but the company didn't go public. I prayed about this, and I wanted that, but my kid didn't make the traveling claim.

In fact, the coach was a jerk. I prayed it right, and kind of our hands are on our hips and say, hey God, what's wrong? And we've missed what it means to abide, and the Scripture teaches in your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forever. And don't get me wrong, the gifts of God that he wants to give, he wants us to enjoy a good meal. He wants us to enjoy sex with our marital partner. He wants us to be accepted in love and find security.

He wants us to have a job that we're made for and we're passionate about and brings great fulfillment, but all those things are gifts. And he says where it starts is abiding in me and me in you. The true vine, the great access to the Father is Jesus. And then this one line I do want you to get, every branch of me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Your translation is a little bit different, but about 85% of the time that this word is translated in the New Testament, it means to lift up.

It's not a negative. It's like a vine and there's a branch on the ground, and so he lifts it up and positions it so it can bear fruit. And the ones that are already bearing fruit, he does something that feels very painful.

He prunes it and he cuts off some of the extraneous things so that it'll bear fruit. And then remember you put a box around, if any branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he's talking to followers. He says they're burned and cast into the fire.

This is not a picture of a believer going to hell. Jot on the side of your notes 1 Corinthians chapter three, and you can go study it a bit later. And what he says is that we all, once we have come to know Christ and his Spirit lives in us and our sins are forgiven and he lives in us, there is a judgment, not for our salvation, but there's a judgment coming where we give an account for what did we do with the life that God gave us? The time, the energy, the money, the spiritual gifts. And he says at that judgment, the things that were done for him with the right motive, there's rewards.

Gold, silver, and precious stones. But those things where he gave us things and we didn't do anything with them, or we did things in order to impress people with the wrong motive, he says they're wood, hay, and stubble. And there's this judgment that those things burn, and he's very quick to say, but you will be saved as through fire.

There's a refining process. So Jesus is saying to them, there's a lot on the line. The only one that can live this life is me. And the only one that can live it is when the Holy Spirit dwelling in you produces this life. And then you'll notice, I just did a little study for you.

I'm hoping that you'll kind of dig in on your own and take it deeper. But it says, what did Jesus teach Peter and the disciples about abiding? If you abide in me and my, what's it say? My words abide in you, ask. There's this vertical relationship like breathing, and we inhale God's word. And as we inhale God's word through teaching, through time alone with him, by kind of reading the scriptures slowly and quietly, not to get my three chapters done and put a check mark, but to say, what do you want to say to me?

Here's the one thing I want you to get. The Christian life is about Jesus wanting to be with you. He wants to be with you. It's a relationship.

It's not a duty. It's not just reading the Bible or praying so long or talking. And then did you notice, after there's this vertical relationship of him manifesting his presence, he says, abide in my love, just as I abide in my Father's love. And he talks about loving one another.

So there's this connection. What I want you to know is that everything we're going to talk about is impossible to do alone. You can't do it, and I can't do it. Every command in the New Testament is in the second person plural. You all love one another. You all honor one another. You all encourage one another. No one can live this life apart from God's word, the inhaling of the scriptures, and the exhaling of talking to God in honesty and intimacy and authenticity.

God is never impressed with our words. He's always looking at our heart, and he longs to be close to us. In fact, he longs to be close to us in the times when we want to run away from him. Your failure, your mistake, your difficulty, you blowing it for the 33rd time and you don't really want to pray, the moment you come honestly, oh God, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. And you mean it? The Lord is near the brokenhearted. He saves those that are crushed in spirit. That's what David could say after he committed murder and adultery. And so on the right side, I just put Peters and the disciples, what did they do early on? They heard all of this, and they were confused. They were anxious. Then they failed, right? They abandoned him. Then they got hopeful, and then his death, and they were thinking it's going to happen.

They were defeated. Then they went to his word after the resurrection, and they looked at some of those Old Testament promises and things Jesus told him. And then they prayed, and as they waited, they received power. Then the Holy Spirit indwelt them. And if you want to jot down Acts 2 42 to 47, you'll find that there is a life-giving, powerful community where on a regular, rhythmic way, they gave their attention to the apostles' teaching, and to the prayers, and to meeting from house to house, and sharing a meal, and loving one another, and meeting the needs of the poor. And it said the Lord added to their number daily. That's the picture of abiding and how it's manifested.

If you turn to the back page, I put a little picture that I introduced last time. I didn't grow up reading the Bible. I didn't grow up in a church that taught the Bible. As I shared earlier, I came to Christ just before I went away to college.

There was a brick layer that began to help me grow. I tried really hard in my effort and my energy to live the Christian life. Once I found out I couldn't do it, I quit.

At least I tried to quit. But Jesus wouldn't quit. And so in the midst of that, I began to learn, okay, how do you abide? And those things that came out of John 15, notice there's the word and prayer in this vertical relationship. You notice there's witnessing and fellowship in the horizontal relationship. And it's all about having Christ as the center. And then just as you learn, and as I learn, obeying what you know. I put a few observations about this wheel.

It serves as a guide in our personal growth as a basis for abiding. Notice a wheel's dynamic. It's always moving.

When it's moving, you don't see the spokes. It's not about how much you pray or this or that. What happens is you begin to see Christ.

The emphasis is on relationship. The Christian life is not about sort of some self-help, like how am I growing and how am I doing and am I praying enough, am I reading enough, am I doing this? Here's the Christian life. My focus is on Jesus.

All those things are merely means. When you're really struggling and when I'm really struggling, don't start focusing more and more in. Start setting your eyes and your focus on Him. And I want to talk about how to do that practically, because I've heard people say that, you know, fix your eyes on Jesus.

And I'm like, great. I mean, what's that really mean? How do you really do that? By the way, if you want the full wheel illustration with verses and how it all works out, just Google the wheel illustration. It was developed by another high school educated person named Dawson Trotman who started a ministry called the Navigators, the discipleship ministry, and that bricklayer was a part of the Navigators. You know what it means to abide, right? It means to stay connected to Jesus. How do you abide?

It has something to do with the word and prayer and being connected to other believers and responding in love and obedience to what we know, right? It's really, really hard to abide because we all get distracted, right? We all have distorted desires. Satan is always offering and the world is always offering really, really good things in the wrong way or the wrong time. And so we fall in love with the gift.

If so many people knew my name or if we went public or if I had a house or I had a second house or if my body looked better and we have all these things, if-when, if-when, if-when, if-when, and then if you ever do get them, it's like, ooh, they didn't deliver. And God says those are all gifts. Those are all things I want to give when you understand every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights with whom there's no variation.

I want you to enjoy these things as gifts and give me the credit and cause it to spur on our relationship. Well, back to this wheel. I accidentally learned how to abide.

Are you ready for this? It was a pure accident and my motivation was carnal. That's how kind God is. So I'm deciding I can't quit the Christian life and my roommate was a wrestler and we were very competitive.

He was a heavyweight wrestler and I was the skinny point guard. And so he was going to go to this training program put on by this group that does the wheel and he had these 60 verses he had to memorize. There were two verses, you know, two verses on God's word, two on prayer, two on obedience. And then there was another, I had 60 total. And so I thought I'm going to do one a day. I'm going to have a master. I'm just going to walk in and go, Hey Bob, how you coming with the, you know, but to go through all of them, you know, I'm a very over the top, zealous, nutty person.

I've actually mellowed some. But the only way I did it was I took those cards and I did one a day and then I kept them with me. I remember running to, we had fall baseball and I would do him there.

I remember in psychology class cause it was very boring. I would, and I reviewed him. I reviewed him. I reviewed him. I reviewed him.

I kept reviewing him all the time cause I wanted all 60 in 60 days and I wanted to show him that basketball players were better than wrestlers. And I didn't realize that I was renewing my mind multiple times every day. And all these verses were getting put into my mind and my subconscious. And I remember meeting a very beautiful coed who I really struggled with cause she was very godly. And I remember having a conversation where I did not lust at all. And then no one told me to start doing this or start doing that.

My, my desires changed. Getting up and reading the Bible was all these Christians here. Did you read the Bible this morning?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it was just like, ah, duty, duty, duty, right? If you're supposed to be a good Christian, you're supposed to read the Bible. I don't read the Bible. I feel guilty a lot. Did you go to church? And I didn't really go to church cause I was out till two in the morning with the basketball guys and it was really hard to get up and I still love God. I'd really feel bad.

Or if I did some things I knew were really wrong, then I remember doing this. I'd get next to my bed and you know, oh God, oh God, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Please, please, please, please, please. And I'm going to feel really bad about myself for about two days and then I'll catch you later. It was sort of like, you know, whipping myself. And I remember in this journey praying like that about a behavior that I was struggling with. And I remember I didn't know much about the Holy Spirit, but I heard a little voice inside my head is, well, why are you saying you're sorry? You like this sin.

So why don't you just get honest? Why don't you just tell me, I really liked this sin. I feel really bad afterwards, but I liked this sin and asked me to help you not to like this sin. And I didn't know how that would work, but I remember getting up and thinking, I've been telling God how sorry I am and not changing over and over and over again because I didn't know how to abide.

See, at the heart of abiding is honesty. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Abide in Me, which is from our series, The Four Great Invitations. Chip will be back with us in studio shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. Do you have a mentor? That one person with lots of life know-how who you trust for wisdom and guidance? Well, if not, in this series, Chip will be that mentor for us as he shares some vital lessons he's learned through five decades of walking with Jesus. And he'll unpack how his experiences relate to four essential invitations Jesus challenged his disciples with throughout the gospels. Don't miss how these biblical insights can encourage, motivate, and comfort you through all aspects of life. Learn more about this series by going to livingontheedge.org.

That's livingontheedge.org. Well, Chip's back with me in studio. And Chip, after hearing your message today, I thought about the countless people listening right now with real needs.

And as we continue to create new programming and resources that meet those needs, all the expenses of the ministry are a monthly issue. So take a moment, if you would, and talk to those who've considered partnering with us before but just haven't made that commitment. I'd be glad to, Dave. You know, really, only about two percent of all the people that listen partner with us financially in any way. And I think sometimes it's because they just don't think what I could do would make a difference. But I just want to encourage some of you that feel like, you know, hey, you know, boy, God's really using this in my life, but I'm just not in a position. Maybe you could do something really small, but God could take your small gift and do something really big with it. So, you know, thanks so much, and appreciate anything God leads you to do.

Thanks Chip. Well, if joining the Living on the Edge team is an idea that makes sense to you, let me encourage you to become a monthly partner. Now, you can do that today at livingontheedge.org or via the Chip Ingram app, and tap the donate button. With a few clicks, you can set up a recurring donation and help others benefit from this ministry. Or if it's easier, text donate to 74141.

That's the word donate to 74141. Well, Chip, you ended your talk today by describing your struggle to understand what it meant to abide in Jesus. Share what you've learned since and how we can apply those principles to our walk with Jesus.

Well, Dave, I don't know about other people, but not growing up in a Bible-teaching church, not reading the Bible ever growing up, as I was growing in Christ, everything was a jumble and I didn't know what abide meant. And the little illustration that I used that I received from the Navigators was that wheel illustration. And I remember looking at that wheel illustration where Christ is the center and you had these vertical spokes of God's word and prayer, and then the horizontal spokes of relationship with sharing the love of Christ witnessing and in fellowship with other believers.

And then there was this outer rim that was the obedient Christian life. And I remember looking at that and realizing, oh, you know, I'm not in the Bible very much, I'm not in God's word, and I talk to him now and then. I share with this group, that's really helping me. And then I knew there was a couple things that I just flat out wasn't obeying. All I knew was I had this experience with Jesus and I was getting stuck around some issues of sin and I knew trying really hard didn't work. And so what I want to say is that we need fellow believers. We need God's word in our mind and hearts on a regular basis. And we need to realize this. We are so deeply loved by God and He wants the very best for us. He knows everything. He knows the path that we're on and what it will bring about if we disobey and the pain that it will cause to us and to others. So I would just encourage you to ask yourself, do you really believe God loves you and He has your best in mind? And then get into God's word and find a group of people that take walking with Him seriously because you can't do it alone.

That's a great reminder, Chip. And let me say here at Living on the Edge, we really believe in the power of community. And one of the best ways we can encourage that is by providing small group resources. Go to livingontheedge.org and click the store button to learn more. And whether you want to build a stronger marriage, better understand God's character, or biblically respond to our changing culture, we have something for you. Again, to learn more about any of our small group studies, go to livingontheedge.org and click the store button or call us at 888-333-6003. Let us help you build some life changing community today. Well, join us next time as Chip continues his series, The Four Great Invitations. Until then, I'm Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.