Jesus Unfiltered - Love - Love... Costs!, Part 2

You can't buy love, but make no mistake about it, love costs. And today, you'll discover the price of love and how to both receive it and give it. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, today Chip's wrapping up the third volume in our Jesus Unfiltered series. We hope you've learned a lot from this study through the Gospel of John, chapters 11 through 15. And if you missed any part of this series along the way, catch up any time at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Okay, here now is Chip with part two of his message, Love Costs, from John chapter 15.

The biggest problem of being restored back to a living relationship is you so think that everyone will be and God is down on you. I want you to know he's not. He just wants to bear fruit. In fact, he shifts it in verse 7 through 11.

What he's going to do now is he's going to talk about the benefit and why it's so important to bear fruit, not just for his glory, but for our good. Picking it up in verse 7, notice what he says. If you abide in me, by the way, it's a third class condition. What it means is, maybe you will, maybe you won't. That's your decision. But if you will, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.

Is that amazing? When you abide, he says, you have access. You have access. He said more than Peter, more than John, more than the disciples, you have access to the throne room of God. When you are staying in communion and his word is in you and you're talking with him, he says, our hearts and our agendas are going to get so aligned, ask whatever you will. Not just ministry things, your heart's desire.

I'm your father. I want to answer. And anytime I can answer in a way that would be pleasing to you, I would love to. Notice in verse 8, he says, by this my father is glorified that you bear notice, not more fruit, not fruit, that you bear much fruit and so you prove to be my disciples. Fruitfulness. As you abide, as you get connected with believers, as you're in God's word, you'll notice a little picture I put on here for you.

I tried to kind of show you what it might look like in the picture of a wheel. When Jesus is the center of your life and you're in his word regularly and talking, this before God element of the Christian life, he says, what's going to happen is you bear fruit. And that's a life of extraordinary impact and that's an extraordinary life. I was a really slow starter, but after 25 years in the scriptures, probably tens of thousands of hours and I've been in small groups, probably mine ever since maybe after the first year or so and little by little learned where God wanted me to serve. And as I've done that, you know, the life of Christ over time gets formed in you.

We're just regular people, but it gets formed in you. And I was in Atlanta at the time leading an organization and a guy moved from Atlanta and saw my name somewhere, called and said, is this the Chip Ingram from Gehenna? I said, well, yeah. And he says, you remember across from the high school, my house, his name was Martin.

And I said, yeah, you know, and I used to live in front of the high school because that's where the outdoor basketball courts were. And he said, well, so you're a Christian now? Yeah.

Like a pastor or something? I said, yeah, yeah. Kind of. Yeah.

Sort of. Yeah, really? And he said, really? I said, yeah. You know? And he goes, well, can I ask you like a really hard question?

Because this is sort of hard to digest. And I said, well, sure. He said, are you as arrogant now as you were then?

I mean, 25 years. You keep sharing the love, Martin. But you know what? You know what for me was?

You know, my honest answer was, you know what? God's changed a lot. I'm sure I still deal with a lot of self-focus and arrogance that I'm not aware of. But I just, I said, Martin, you know, I didn't know Christ in high school and I was so insecure and all that puffing up and all that talking and all that junk was really me desperately longing to sort of put up some sort of false me that I thought people might like. And so that part got crucified and died. And you know what it reminded me of though?

I hung up the phone and I thought, oh God, what an extraordinary life you've produced inside of me. I'm not that arrogant person. I don't struggle with that.

I get other struggles, you know? And never in my wildest dreams. I mean, I never even opened the Bible, let alone that God would ever allow ordinary people like us to be used. You know what it's like when the grace of God goes through our lips and life and words and resources through the PVC pipe of our fleshly humanness and that grace lands in the heart of a person and they find eternal life or a marriage comes back together or a kid gets off of drugs and you realize a normal regular person like me was used by God.

That's bearing much fruit. And you know what happens? God gets glorified and it proves or demonstrates that you're his follower.

But it gets even better. Look at verses 9 and 10. Verses 9 and 10, he says, just as my Father loved me, I have loved you. Abide in my love.

Now, would you digest that? Jesus is saying, as God the Father perfectly, unconditionally, deeply, intimately loved me, I loved you. Now here's what I want you to do. Abide, stay connected in living communion, not with my rules, not with religion, with my love.

Well, what is that? Unwavering devotion to you, unbridled devotion, uncommon service, all those things we talked about, that's how Jesus loves me and you. And then look at verse 10. He says, if you keep my commandments, because you're asking, well, I want that kind of love, how do you do it? If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. And so notice in your notes, you might jot down love resulting in heartfelt obedience. You know, at the end of the day, if you just kind of keep playing it out, Lucy, if I do this and if I get married someday and you know, if we do this and you know, if I could work at this company and then if this could happen and then if I could do this and then if I could do this, you know, my kids did that and if they could go to these schools and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then I would be loved. I mean, like, so like, what's the big end game, right? And Jesus said, here's the end game.

It's the first game. Just walk with me. Make me the center of your life. Make my word the number one thing you do every day. Talk with me deeply and honestly and from the heart.

I am, I'm so wanting to answer your prayers. You're already loved. You know, when you're already loved, then your insecurities start to diminish. When you're already loved, there's nothing to prove. When you're already loved, there's nothing to lose.

And you know, when there's nothing to prove and there's nothing to lose and you don't have to do image management and you don't have to worry about what everyone else is doing and how fast they're going up the ladder and did they get this or did their kids get into this school and your kids didn't or did they make the traveling team blah, blah, blah. You can like relax and you can be who God made you to be. And then as you abide, He works. He works.

Apart from Him, you can do nothing. But as you abide, He'll use your life. He'll change you and He's for you. In fact, notice the very last line. He says, these things I've written unto you.

Why? That my joy might be in you and that your joy might be made full. See, we don't believe that. God's motives for you to make Him the center, the passion, the focus, the identity of your life is that He knows what delivers joy that circumstances low or high can never deliver. And He not only wants you just to have His joy, but He wants that to come to fruition and fulfillment. Someone has said that the business card of the early church was joy and their marketing strategy was love.

So it's going to change your neighborhood, your workplace, my neighborhood. It's when we abide in Him and now He's going to shift from our personal relationship with Him and the intimacy that it gives us. He's going to say, now I want you all to have a relationship with one another that mirrors my relationship with you. In fact, the only way to abide is not just in the horizontal coming before God, but there's an in community and there's an on mission focus of this abiding relationship. So look at verse 12. Verse 12, what's He say? He says, this is my commandment that you love one another just as I've loved you.

Well, what's love look like? Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends condition if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves for a slave doesn't know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends for all things I've heard from my father I've made known to you.

It's amazing stuff. You didn't choose me. I chose you and I appointed you. I gave you a job description that you should go and do what? Bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.

Why? So that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give to you. Notice he gives us an impossible command. The impossible command is that I'm supposed to love you all. Are you kidding me? Like Jesus loves me.

Well, what's that look like Chip? You're supposed to be willing. I don't mean theoretically. I don't mean like sorta hyperbole. I'm supposed to be willing to give my physical life for you if God would call me to do it.

That's what he said. Stronger than blood relationships, stronger than what people think. The early church when they follow Jesus, he said, look, I want you to stay connected to me and then I want you to love each other.

And I don't know about you, it's impossible. But as I'm in God's word, as I get to know God and as I get in community with other people, he produces a love that I don't have that's supernatural that means that I'll lay down my schedule, I'll lay down my priorities, I'll lay down my money, I'll lay down my dreams, I'll interrupt my life to allow the Jesus in me to give you what you need even to the point of my life. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll get you back to the third volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series, Love, 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 today to learn how to support us. What with that, here again is Chip. I jotted something as I was studying this that I don't want to misrepresent, so I want to actually read it. The uninvolved go-to-church services and believe a set of doctrines that Jesus taught that does not translate into a passionate concern of sacrifice of one's life and resources for other Christians is a foreign concept to New Testament faith and the Christian life that Jesus commanded. I don't know what happened, okay? It happens with people. It happens with organizations. It's happened to the church in America. It's not true around the world.

Around the world, people are dying for one another, even as I speak. But the idea that you could come to a meeting 1.6 times a month or maybe twice a month and throw $5 or $20 in a bag and listen to someone talk and hear a band play and think that that's what it means to be a Christian because you intellectually believe these things that doesn't translate into a passionate following of Jesus and are willing to lay down your life for other people. That experience called the Christian church in America is foreign to the New Testament.

It's just completely not there. And yet we have millions and millions and millions of people who think they're abiding and cannot figure out why their life doesn't work and their marriages don't work and they don't have the peace and they don't have all the things that God promised in verses 7 through 11 because He's not the center and there is not a time in His word and there's not a passionate following of conversation and there is not a connection of being in community where you're doing life with people and what matters most is not your success. What matters most is not where your kids go to school. What matters most is not what people think, fame, and what matters most is not how much money you have or whether you ever go public or invent something or get the patent. What matters most is your personal relationship of staying connected to Jesus, your love for other Christians and you being a branch or instrument of grace in your neighborhood and where you work so God's will on earth can get done the way it gets done in heaven.

We talk about a paradigm shift, right? It's a completely different kind of Christian. But notice after the impossible command, I love this, He gives an unimaginable reward. He calls us His friend. You know when you hear this kind of stuff, I don't know about you, but I just go, yeah, right, help. You hear His friend.

And don't read in your Western 21st century view. The word friend here in the culture, in the Greek language was it means the inner circle of a king or an emperor. That meant that He had advisors. He had people that they didn't have to knock.

They could come in any time. They knew the secrets of the king. When He was sort of talking about what are we going to do, where are we going to go, what are we going to do, all of that, His friends, these people that were on the inside who knew what was going on and why it was going on and could even talk with Him about it. That's what Jesus says you are. It's not like your little peons that are given an assignment. Of course we're servants to the most high God. But He says no longer do I call you slaves or servants even though I'm Lord and Master and CEO of the universe. I call you friends because I'm bringing you in. You talk about an unbelievable privilege, high cost of course.

You get to be a part of number one having an intimate friendship with the maker of the universe and you get to be a part of His assignment which is change the world. And the temptation will be oh Jesus please help me be successful for my agenda to fulfill what I want to do what I want to make my life work for me. And that's a lie from the enemy. And here's the tragedy. The people that I set up with counseling, the people that I work with, they already have that stuff.

And what happens is when you succeed at the thing that you think will deliver and it's an idol and it doesn't deliver it is devastating. And Jesus says is there anything wrong with any of those? No. But what's at the center? Look at that picture. Is Jesus the source and the center of your life?

And then are those spokes functioning? Are you in God's word? Do you really talk to Him?

Are you really in community? Is there a group of people you're really doing life with? After that He's going to tell them here's the high cost of loyalty. If they hated me, verses 18 to 27, I'm just going to give them to you. If they hated me, they're going to hate you. If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you.

In fact, this section opens up and ends as we go into chapter 16. He's going to say I just want you guys to know I love you. I'm for you. I'm coming back. I want you to abide. I want you to love each other, be willing to die for each other, which they did. And I'm going to give you this unbelievable opportunity to be my close personal friend and fulfill my mission for all eternity.

And by the way, you better put on your chin strap and put on all your pads, dude, because it's going to be rough. They're going to hate you like they hated me because you're not a part of the world. And the more you do what I want lovingly and kindly, guess what? Then I want you to respond the way I did where you forgive them, where it's always truth but no compromise. There's no fear of anyone, but you love everyone. And it says then they're going to kick you out of the synagogues, which back then meant I lose my citizenship in Israel. My kids are not going to get educated.

I might have a hard time getting a job. And they just lined up behind him. Verse 27 says, and here's the agenda, just as the Holy Spirit will bear witness of me, each one of you will bear witness of me. I want your life and your words and your attitudes to reflect me in this way. That's God's call for us.

I'd like you to lean back if you would for a minute. On the back of your notes, I gave you a very simple, clear, step-by-step way to learn to get the before God portion of your life rolling. I don't need to go through it.

It's very simple. You can change it, but if you want to abide, you have to get before God daily. If you want to abide, you have to be in community weekly. And if you really want to abide, you have to be on mission, be looking for God. I want you to use me. And I'm not talking just about church ministries.

I'm talking about being on mission 24-7. I'd like you to lean back, if you will, and if you feel comfortable, kind of shut your eyes because some of you are here and there's no fruit. People are not accusing you of being a radical, devoted follower of Jesus. And some of the issues in your life right now, God wants to reposition you. He wants to lift you up. He loves you.

He's for you. And He wants you to lean in. And part of that will be, okay, I don't really know what you want me to do.

Well, guess what? You haven't been talking to me lately and you haven't let me talk to you. So start this little reading plan and just begin to abide and I'll show you. There's others of you here and you are just, you're bearing fruit. Man, you are walking with God but you just cannot figure out what's going on right now and you're afraid and you're fearful and it's a struggle.

This is what it means to really walk with God and have all this adversity. He's pruning you, okay? Lean in. Be patient. Just draw near. Draw near to God, He'll draw near to you. And there's some of you that you just find yourself here and you've been really far away from God and you're fearful that you're like one of those branches that in terms of future usefulness, you're just being thrown on the pile.

And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's why you're here. I love you. Let's get back in the game. Let me love you.

Let's reconnect. Address whatever you need to address but let, as you kind of think about what will it look like? What do you need to do? What's just the first step? Just ask God right now, Lord, what's the first step? What's the next step to take a step toward you?

And I guarantee you do that. He'll show you all the others. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and the message you just heard, Love Costs, is from the third volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Love. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. The Bible tells us we love because Jesus first loved us. So in this study in the Gospel of John, Chip helped us better understand this divine love by looking at Christ's perfect example.

We pray that these five characteristics Jesus modeled will lead you into more fulfilling relationships with others and a deeper connection to your Heavenly Father. Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any part of this series at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is here with me now to talk about something really important with all of you.

Chip? Thanks so much, Dave. You know, our broadcast ministry is the foundation of Living on the Edge. It's where we began as a radio ministry years ago.

We have over a million people listening each week. I mean, God uses the teaching of His Word in just an amazing way. And from that, we developed discipleship resources, started training pastors. But probably a lot of people don't realize that, you know, when you share God's Word and when you share the Gospel because it's powerful, it really works. We did some research and found about 40,000 people indicate that they prayed to receive Christ. They go online and say, I prayed with you on the broadcast.

That is humbling and amazing and we praise God and give Him the credit. You know, people often ask me, well, how much do they pay you to be on the radio? In secular radio, advertisers pay the bills and so they pay the people to create the content. However, in Christian radio, it's just the opposite. We actually pay hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to be on the over a thousand stations all across America. And so when you are giving to Living on the Edge, what you're doing is you're helping us buy that airtime to be on a thousand plus stations to reach over a million people so that many people come to know Jesus and those that do know Him are growing and their lives are changing.

Here's my question. Would you help us do that? Would you help us reach people that don't know Christ?

And would you help Christians live like Christians? If you would pray about what God might lead you to do to give to the ministry right now would be a really critical time and we'd be very grateful. Thanks, Chip. As you prayerfully consider your role in this ministry, I want to remind you that every dollar is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in remarkable ways. To give a gift, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners tap donate. With that, Chip, let's get to your final application as we close out this series.

Thanks, Dave. As we wrap up the study in John chapter 11 through 15, I just want to quickly remind you of what love really is. In chapter 11, love trusts. Even when you don't understand, Lazarus is gone, but God's in control. Love gives.

We die to ourselves in order that others might live. In chapter 13, love serves. The Savior of the world washes their feet. In chapter 14, as they're so fearful, He says, Love obeys. If you keep My commandments, then you truly love Me.

And then in chapter 15, love costs. Greater love has no one than this that we lay down our life for our friends. Can I encourage you? Love God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. Let me encourage you to listen to this series yet again and then put this into practice. God loves you, and He wants you to demonstrate that to others in a very clear and practical way.

Let's do this together. Thanks, Chip. Well, if you want to go back and listen to any part of this study, check out the Chip Ingram app. It's an easy way to listen to our latest series or get plugged in with a few of our helpful resources. We long to see every Christian living like a Christian, and the tools available through the Chip Ingram app can help. For Chip and the entire team, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.