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 for this 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 Ingram, 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 livingontheedge .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 a 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 were made
to be with God and with each other. You're hardwired.
Our hearts desperately long for the withness.
You know, friends are rare these days. Not because
they've diminished 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 withness. And
so the entire arc of the Bible 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 am with you,
even to the end of the age. Think about this.
Your greatest need is to be fully known and fully
loved. 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. Not
I'm coming to get you. That's how we hear it.
I'm coming for you. 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 egg for presence because we were created
to be with God and each other. And believe it
or not, our hearts egg 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. Now, 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 1611 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.
And 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. We'll 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 egg 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. Genesis
2 .15 says, the Lord God took man and put him
in the garden of Eden. If you're carefully following
along in the notes, you'll 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, and conflict. We often
feel fragmented, overworked, stressed, striving,
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 shalom. All
of us have this God -sized hole within 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. Learn from me. I'm gentle and humble at
heart. You'll find rest. for your soul. We spend
our days looking for something or someone to
fill the ache of our soul, to bring wholeness
to our life, to mend the brokenness that we cover
up from everyone else. So what do 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 ache, a God -sized hole that only
he can fill. 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 were 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 prepare. I was going
to head to a coffee shop. I come out of my door,
and I see my neighbors. 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 noticed 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 OK? He kind of ignores me.
He's fit on with his phone. And I ask again,
like, hey, man, you OK? Then I realized maybe
I'm asking the wrong question. And so I said,
hey, man, do you know where you're at? And I
guess he had called his girlfriend. And he's
like crying. He's like, I. believe 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 Willow
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. And so I looked at him and
said, do you need a ride home? He's like, yeah.
Come on, get in the car. And as we got in the
car and we're driving. We started to have a conversation.
He began to just say this line over and over
again. I can't believe you found me. You saved
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 home. 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 home. 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 fill
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 ache
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? Oh, 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 for me. You
died for me. You rose again from the grave for
me to bring me home. to bring life. So today,
Jesus, would you come and make your home in my
heart? Would you come and make me new? Before
we go any further today, could you relate to
the empty and belonging 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,
livingontheedge .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 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 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
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Well, thanks for listening to this edition of
Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave
Brewey, and I hope you'll join us again next
time.