Jesus Unfiltered - Love - Love... Costs!, Part 1

Just for the sake of argument, let's imagine together that you only had 48 hours to live. Who would you talk to? What calls would you make? What would you do in the next 48 hours?

That's a provocative question and one I'd like to explore with you. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. And we're nearing the end of this third volume in our series, Jesus Unfiltered. For these last couple of programs, Chip's going to walk through the final aspect of divine love laid out for us in John chapter 15. Well, there's a lot of ground to cover, so go there now in your Bible as we join Chip for his message, Love Costs.

You got your notes, pull them out. I want to ask you one of those kind of serious questions that I'd really like you to ponder deeply. I want you to imagine that I would give you a little wristband like this, and on it would be loaded 720 hours. That's how many hours there are in 30 days.

And as you put this wristband on, it wouldn't come off, and it's going to start counting down from the moment I click it. And in 30 days, you're going to die. You have 30 days to live on this planet. After a couple days, you look and you go, wow, it's under 700. In about a week, there's 168 more hours gone.

Pretty soon, you look and you only have 167 hours left. Here's my question. Who would you hang out with in the last 30 days of your life? And why? Where would you go?

You got 30 days. Every day, you would watch the hours clicking down towards zero. Where would you go?

Why would you go there? You talk about something that would reset priorities, right? What unresolved relationship or unresolved issue or what's something really big that really needs to get done that if you had 720 hours beginning today, that somewhere in that time you would say, no matter what, I've got to nail that.

I need to forgive her. I need to resolve that issue. I need to address that. See, another way to say that is because when you think in vivid, clear terms like that and if you get really honest, what you're really asking is what's most important, right? And what 30 days does, it brings a level of urgency that you realize, wow, I would have to address that in 30 days.

And the unconscious delusion that we have all the time in the world causes us to procrastinate on those, doesn't it? See, the real question is what's the most important thing in life, right? That's the real question. More than success, more than money, more than kids, more than family, loving God and loving people. Jesus said this is the first and greatest commandment, that you love the Lord your God with all your soul, your might, your heart and your strength and you love your neighbor like yourself. Why?

Two reasons. Number one, love never fails. And number two, love lasts forever. You know, whether it's knowledge or fame or sex or money or education or knowledge, no matter where a lot of our time goes, every single one of those things will pale and literally become meaningless if they don't flow out of love. The third question I want to ask you is then what actually is love if it's that important? And then you'll notice on the front, this is how Jesus described love. It's not an ooey gooey feeling.

It's not I feel good about someone or we kind of connect. Jesus said this is love. Love is unwavering trust in God's timing, purpose and plans even when they're different than our own.

Remember that? That was John 11. Jesus said love is unbridled devotion, so devoted that you give extravagant gifts.

You give your reputation. You make great sacrifices. That was John 12. Jesus said love is uncommon servanthood.

When you really love people, you actually consider other people and their issues more important than your own. And so Jesus washed his disciples' feet. And finally, Jesus said it's uncompromising obedience to his word regardless of the consequences. There in John 14, he told them the future I'm leaving and it's going to be tough for you all, but obeying me is the proof of your love. As you open your notes, the context of what's going on here raises the big question for you and for me like it did those disciples.

Here was the question. They were told I want you to continue to do what I've been doing. What was Jesus doing? Revealing the Father and loving people in radical ways in order that they could be rescued by what he said and how he did these miraculous works. And he's going to say to the disciples, your job is to continue the mission. And he's told them I'm going to leave, but I'm going to come back. And then he challenged them deeply to say, I want you all to continue what I started.

And here's the question they had to be asking, how? How could we possibly love like Jesus? I mean, that little review I did, I mean, uncommon servanthood, unbridled devotion, extravagant gifts. I mean, when you look at your life and when I look at mine, I mean, that bar is like high, right?

How in the world? But that's what he said. We're to love people and love each other the way he loved us. And what he's going to do is he's going to teach them in John 15 the how. They've gotten up from the dinner, they've sung a hymn, the Lord's Supper is over.

And on the way to the Mount of Olives where he'll be arrested, there's a vineyard. And as he stops at the vineyard, as best we can tell, he began to give them a word picture that would communicate to them how they could stay in vital union with him in such a powerful way that his very life by the person of the Holy Spirit living in them would produce a life of love and mission just like his. To do that, we pick it up with the promise in John chapter 14. Jesus said, if anyone has, here's the key that you need, faith. You got to believe.

You got to trust. He says, if anyone has faith, he will do what I've been doing. Well, what was Jesus doing? Doing what God was like and he was on mission. Jesus said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. And he gave the baton to his disciples and to us and said, I want every single person on the face of the earth to know I love them. I've died for them.

I've forgiven them. And your job is by your words and by your actions to communicate that. In fact, you'll do greater works than even I did. And then in John chapter 15, he gives us the process and the way he does that is this metaphor of the vine and the vineyard and the vine dresser. Follow the long as I just read the first six verses and you've heard it, but I want you to just dig in and look at it for yourselves, touch it and feel it.

Imagine yourself stopping at a vineyard, being scared to death about the future, but having confidence in him and wondering how in the world can I love the way that I'm supposed to love? And Jesus would look at you and say, I'm the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away or literally he lifts up and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it that it might bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. Command, verse four, abide in me, remain, stay connected, have living union is the idea and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit unless it is abiding in the vine, so you cannot unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. Warning, verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he's speaking to believers.

The first line is I am the true branch, every branch in me. He's speaking to believers here, but as a believer, you can not stay connected. You can get distracted. There's times where you haven't read the Bible in days or weeks. There's times where you haven't prayed effectively or deeply in a long time.

There's times where busyness and the drift of work or family or discouragement or addictions cause you to fade farther and farther away from your union. You're still his son, you're still his daughter, but you become useless as an agent of grace because your life doesn't reflect him and your focus and priorities have nothing to do with Jesus' agenda. And so in verse six, he says, if anyone doesn't abide in me, he's thrown away, notice, as a branch, not as a son or daughter. And they dry up and they gather them and they cast them into the fire and they are burned.

And we'll talk about what that means. In your notes, notice, first and foremost, Jesus said he's the true vine. He's the true vine. In the Old Testament, Israel was the vine. In the temple, there would be pictures of vines that reflect it. In the period of the Maccabees on a Jewish coin, there was a vine. Israel was God's vine.

It was to tell the world of his love and his justice and his righteousness, but they've rejected their king. So he's saying to them, I am the true vine. I'm the connection with the father. Second, our soul, the father positions and prunes us for fruitfulness. He says, any branch, did you notice the progression? No fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit.

And he's going to address each one. He positions us and prunes us to bear more fruit. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get you back to today's message in just a minute. But first, are you in need of a spiritual shot in the arm? Do you feel like your walk with Jesus is stale, maybe even a bit stuck? Well, join us after the teaching as Chip highlights a resource we have that'll help you reconnect with God through his Word.

You don't want to miss it. Okay, here again is Chip to continue our series, Jesus Unfiltered. Notice in verse two, he says, every branch and meat that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Literally, if you would look this up in a Greek dictionary, the very first one like you to want to go in a dictionary, there's three or four meanings, it would say lift up. In fact, in John 6, when they lift up or picked up stones to stone him, exact same word. This isn't a picture of Judas being taken away.

He's already gone. When you're a believer and you're not bearing fruit, here's the picture. In Palestine, often the vines would run on trellises, some would run on the ground, and they wouldn't be in a position to get water and air and what they needed to grow. And so what they would do is they would pick up the vines and take little sticks with a V and they'd lift them up off the ground to position them so that they could grow and produce fruit, not just leaves and vines. Some of you are living a life that has you positioned not to bear fruit.

Your schedule, your priorities, what you put in your mind, certain relationships, a preoccupation with work. You're not positioned. You're not bearing fruit. People don't rub up next to you and go, wow, no, there's someone that really loves Jesus. Your life currently isn't one where you kind of look back and you have multiple relationships with people that don't know Christ that God is using you to draw them to himself and some of them putting their faith in him. And the reason is out of God's love, he says, if you don't bear fruit, he's going to reposition you. You know, when a vine grows along the ground, it makes some connections.

When it gets lifted up, it's a little painful. God's taking some of you through difficult times that you don't understand. And honestly, I love God and I don't know what's going on, but this relationship's not going well here.

And you know, my supervisor's down on me at work over here and I got a problem over here and I got health issues over here. The kind velvet vice of God's love, he'll lift you up. He'll reposition you. And the goal is, he's not down on you, it's to get your attention so that you can fulfill his mission, reveal the father and share his love with people that don't know him. The second group he says is that he repositioned some, but there's some people that they're bearing fruit. They love God. They're progressively becoming more like Christ. They're in his word. They're talking to him honestly from their heart. They're doing community with some other people and doing life together. I mean, they are at opportunities as God opens the doors, they're sharing their faith and their life's falling apart. And it's like, hey God, what's the deal? Is this what you get for obeying you?

Like, are you kidding? I got with a young man who really walks with God, passionate father of Christ. He goes, I feel like every area in my life is just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know? There's family issues I can't control. I got a big job issue over here. I feel discouraged about this over here.

This happened over here. And I remember kind of sitting down and sharing with him. I said, you know, when God is really going to use someone, he said he prunes them. And I don't know if you know much about pruning, but I have a neighbor who has a long, long, long row of beautiful roses and you know, there's different seasons and I actually took pictures of them and somehow I obviously do not know how to transfer pictures from my iPhone to my computer. But I had these pictures of scraggly things and then she went out there for like three days and I mean, they were like this and she cut them like down to here and I'm going, what are you doing? And I mean, she was doing it like a surgeon, you know, and she goes, you just wait. And so I took pictures of those and then, you know, as a number of weeks, months later and I mean, it was just unbelievable all these roses. So I took a picture of that and I was going to show you guys, but you'll have to imagine. All I can tell you, if I was a rosebush when she got done, I would think she didn't like me because it was just a bunch of stubs.

But what she knew was the life and the energy needs to go into what is going to produce the flowers, not what's going to produce more foliage. And that's where some of you are at. I've had two major prunings in my life. I've had a lot of little ones, but two major ones. One, I was a Christian about three, three and a half years. I was really growing. I was a slow getting with the program Christian. I mean, getting up and reading the Bible was hard for me. I was not a morning person. Going to church was like, man, are you like kidding me?

You know, when you stay out to three in the morning, it's really hard to get up. And memorizing a few verses and little by little by little, I got in a small group. I started getting at God's word and then change really began to happen. And I mean, I was really excited about God. I was sharing my faith with guys on the basketball team. And then, you know, my junior year I dated this girl.

I thought she would be the one. We dated for, you know, two and a half years or so. Our coach got fired. You go six and 26, you get fired. And in about three weeks, coach gets fired. New coach goes, this is a mess. I'm canceling all scholarships.

I'm going to have tryouts in 60 days. I got one more year I need my school paid for. My girlfriend and I, not some big thing, but her life is going this way. My life's going this way. And I realize it's a lordship issue, so we break up. My spiritual leader, the bricklayer that helped me so much, he decides, you know something, this ministry is going well. I'm moving to another campus.

I'm going to start it, lay bricks over there. So my spiritual leader is gone. My girlfriend's gone. My scholarship is at least temporarily gone and maybe for good. And so I think at least my mom and dad and my dad's alcoholism had sort of blown up and they were having a really bad time after 25 years.

I'm not sure they're going to make it in their marriage. And, you know, if you've ever, all I can remember was it was like, if my life was a little house and there was like four pillars, it's like God went ping, ping, ping, ping, and it went whoosh. And, you know, I didn't know anything. I just thought, like, are you kidding me?

I mean, if this is what you get for obeying God, what do you get when you're disobedient? I mean, I'm serious. I mean, I was just like, God, hey, I'm not sure. I don't know if I can trust you. And all I can tell you is you either turn to God or turn away from God.

And you know what? I couldn't rely on my girlfriend and my identity couldn't be basketball anymore. And I couldn't go to my parents for security. And he ripped everything away because he loved me so much and had such a great plan for my life. He wanted me to draw near to him in ways like never before. So he became my security and my identity. And it was so heartbroken over this girl, if you can imagine this, I didn't date anyone for about 14 months because I didn't want to. And all the distractions of that moved away.

And it was like, God, it's Jesus plus nothing. He wants to satisfy. And he does that to people who are growing and will prune you.

There's another window of time. Those of you that are in your 50s, late 40s, early 60s, beware. This is for growing Christians. You've made progress. You've led Bible studies.

You read the Bible on a regular basis. You've almost raised your kids that they're out of the house. Life's going really pretty well.

Finances aren't a big problem. You give off the top, you're making great progress. And somehow down deep in the back of your mind, the McDonald's commercial has been embedded at such a level.

You think you deserve a break today. And so you have this picture of what either retirement or God's going to reward you and things are going to be great. And you're in your 50s and he takes the pillars of your life. And on the economy goes, are you a big struggle in your marriage? Or when your kids go south and you find yourself, you never dreamed it could be you and you either have an alcohol addiction or you had back surgery, now you have a prescription pill addiction or, and it's all like pretty soon bam, bam, bam, and the pillars of your life go out.

Because see, his agenda is to get you back at a fresh, desperately dependent level on his agenda. And when I went in my 50s, that was my second big time. Left the security of the church, took over leading a nonprofit, did not want to go there but felt it was God's will, I'm going to obey you. Then three weeks my wife's mother died. My son decided he would get married.

My wife had oral surgery that didn't work. My car in transfer was messed up in a wreck. The economy bubble burst and all the commitments to this ministry faded away and I was in my basement with, what in the world am I doing here? The job's not working, my wife's crying herself to sleep, I got issues here, I got issues here and everything that made my life and identity and security solid went.

You know why? Because God doesn't want you to produce more fruit. He wants you to produce much fruit. And in your late 40s and 50s, the sin that's so subtle is the sin of self-dependency. Your brains, your work, you making it happen, the verses you know, the group that you're in, I've been in this small group for years, well maybe I ought to try a new one.

When's the last time you started one? You know verses, have you memorized any new one lately? But this passion that you desperately need Him, He will knock the props out because His agenda is so much greater and so much bigger. I look back and I think it's the kindest thing God ever did in my life in my early 50s. Going through them, I mean my prayers were, you know what, here's the deal, this was my great faith, I'm not going to quit.

Okay, that's all I can tell you. Out of obedience I came here and if you want me to shut down this ministry, if you want my wife to have health issues, if you want this to happen to this to happen to this, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but you're all I got. And I'm not, unapologetically, I cried out, I cried in my basement. And I remember thinking, is this how thou treatest thy servants? When I start praying in King James, man, I'm really in trouble. Can I ask you, where are you?

Where are you at? What's going on with you? Have you assumed that difficulty and adversity is God is not for you? If you're walking with God and it's hard, He's probably pruning. If you're not really walking with God, He's trying to lift you up and it's uncomfortable. And by the way, the velvet vice of His love, you know, if this doesn't work, okay, how about this? Still don't have your attention? How about this?

How about this? In fact, notice verse 6. It says, if anyone doesn't abide in me, you just decide, you're his son, you're his daughter, but you're just not living the life, you're not going to live the life, you're not going to read the Bible, you're not going to talk seriously, you're not going to get in some group and do community, you don't really care about the people at work, you basically are a child of the living God, you have been sealed with the Spirit, He lives inside of you, but either suddenly or just an active passive rebellion somehow, you've just said, I'm living my life, my way for my agenda. Here's what he says, you'll be thrown away as a branch, not as a son or a daughter. Jod in your notes 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 11 to 15. He says, there's a time where God's discipline goes to the point where literally as being useful to God, you're no use to Him, and so you will be saved yet as through fire, yet you'll lose your reward. In 1 Corinthians 11, 30, you might write this one down, it's a bit scary.

Some people got to that point and their motives were so bad and they were so embarrassing God's agenda, but they were legitimate sons and daughters, He says He prematurely took them home. This is serious stuff. Jesus is committed to His life being manifested in you and through you, so your life bears much fruit, that you, your character, your heart, your patience, your concern for those outside of Christ, your love for Him, your alignment with His mission. He's so committed to that. If there's no fruit, He lifts you up. If there's fruit, He'll prune you.

And if you refuse to abide, He'll actually take you out of the game. You know, when God's working, that's a good thing. Here's the scary times when God says, I just let you go, you do whatever you want to do.

I just, He gives you over, He gives you up. And God is very, very patient. I shared with you, I met a young woman on a plane here several weeks ago and she was a Christian leader at one time and probably I don't know the years, but for a considerable maybe five to seven, eight, nine years, she, out of a series of circumstances and hurts and very legitimate terrible things the church had done to her, she walked away from God. But I just, as I sat, I mean, I've never felt such concern and compassion of the heart of God, of wanting to rescue and bring a daughter back into usefulness. She knows the Lord, she knew the Bible as well as me, she'd read all the great books. But her life is, you know what, far, far from God. And as we talked, I had an experience. In fact, I meet lots of people on planes and I'll drop them a book or send them a series or do something to encourage them.

But this person, I can't, I don't know what's going on. God brings her to my mind. I'm praying for and praying for and praying for. And it just reminded me when I am drifting, my Father loves me. Before we go on, I want to stop right now and I want to ask you personally what I asked those that I was teaching when I said, so where are you at?

I kind of shared my story. What's going on with you? What is it about your life right now that you say to yourself, you know, this whole series has been about love and, you know, love, trust and love costs. But you ask yourself, what's going on with me? Where is God in my life? Am I bearing fruit and what's happening? How come the cost is so high and I don't really sense or experience God very much in my life right now?

I just want to tell you that that may be more normal than you think. You know, I think many times here, and especially American Christianity, we've sort of communicated sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally that, you know, if you really love Jesus and, you know, read your Bible and pray and be generous with your time and your money, that somehow you get this golden pass of a great life and everything goes your way. And that certainly wasn't true of the apostles. It certainly wasn't true of Jesus. And it's certainly not been true in church history. But when you begin to expect that things ought to be easy or good or go your way just because you love God, you could get deeply, deeply disappointed when they don't. And I don't have any simple, easy answer.

And here's how to fix everything. But what I can tell you is, as you saturate your mind and your heart and the truth of Scripture and study the actual life and the words of Jesus instead of who we think Jesus is, fall in love with the Jesus of the Gospels. Get your perspective from the Jesus of the Gospels. Lord, I just pray for those people that are going through very, very difficult times and candidly, they would just say they're really disappointed and they're really struggling and life doesn't make sense. Would you encourage them today? Would you lift their spirits? And Lord Jesus, would you be to them like you were those early disciples?

You were very clear about the truth, but you were so comforting, so encouraging, and you promised that you'd never leave them or forsake them. And Lord, I thank you. That's true for us today, too. Amen. Amen. Thanks, Chip.

I'm Dave Druey, and this is Living on the Edge. And today's message, Love Costs, is from the third volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Love. But before we move on, if you're in a painful season of life right now, let us pray for you. Call us at 888-333-6003, and a team member will pray with you.

That's 888-333-6003. Or if it's easier, email us at chip at livingontheedge.org. Again, that's chip at livingontheedge.org. Well Chip's still here in studio, and Chip, you know we're all vulnerable to the lies Satan tells us about ourselves or God. But I think these characteristics of divine love we're learning in this series will help us remember that God really does care about us. But we need constant reminders. So take a minute, if you would, and talk about a tool we've developed that'll help our listeners focus on who God really is.

I'd be glad to, Dave. I mean, Jesus has come to explain the Father, and yet the culture, the world, my flesh, the enemy, is constantly bombarding my mind and my heart with lies. And so I went back through, and I take the key truth out of each chapter. And so we call these truth cards.

Let me give you an example. Here's a lie. In private moments, I sometimes have thoughts that make me question my faith. Do these doubts or thoughts mean that I don't really believe in Jesus? And then at the bottom of that card, it says stop.

In fact, there's a stop sign there. And then we flip the card over, and it says everyone has doubts from time to time. We're bombarded by lies from the enemy, but the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection, not my feelings on any given day, is the basis of my faith. And then right under that, I have the core passage out of John chapter 20. So what we would love to do is put these in your hands so you can just review them. I find doing it at night before I go to bed, not trying even to memorize, just pondering and thinking and doing three or four or five cards. You do a few of those before you go to bed. It goes into your subconscious mind. It's amazing how your mind is renewed, because what do we all know? What did Jesus promise in John chapter 8? You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. I hope you order a set of these cards for you, and then maybe someone you love as well.

Thanks, Chip. You can do that by going to LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. Our prayer is that this tool will fill your mind with the truth of God's Word and help defend against the lies that come at us. Again, to order your set of our Gospel of John truth cards, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003.

And listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, as we close, I quickly want to thank those of you who regularly give to Living on the Edge. You're making a big difference in helping Christians live like Christians. But if you're benefiting from our ministry and haven't started giving yet, let me encourage you to join the Living on the Edge team. Now, you can do that by setting up a recurring donation at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003.

Again, that's 888-333-6003. Or, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Donate. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll listen to next time as Chip wraps up the third volume in our Jesus Unfiltered series, Love. Until then, this is Dave Drouie saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge. .