WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:32.560 I know it's not a real word. 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:33.280 I made it up. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:34.159 Unalone. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:36.399 God's design for human flourishing. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:46.079 Series is an invitation to step off the treadmill of disconnection and into the kind of life where our souls can breathe again. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:48.640 Let me ask you. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.719 What do you do about the ache within you? 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:56.479 What do you do with just that ache? 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:04.319 You're sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by people, but nobody actually knows you. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:10.159 You're scrolling through social media at midnight. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:15.359 Everyone's highlight real, yet you feel unseen. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:22.879 You moved into a new apartment and you don't know your neighbor's names. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:27.120 That new apartment's now two, three years old. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:31.760 You still don't know their name and they don't know yours. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:40.879 You're in back-to-back Zoom calls all day long, and not one person asks, How are you doing? 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:42.000 Really? 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:47.519 There's a quiet ache under all the noise. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:50.959 A restlessness. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:55.200 A sense that something's missing. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:02.400 We live in a world in a day and age where we're more connected than ever, yet somehow we are more alone. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:09.840 Packed calendars, endless scrolling, and yet the ache remains. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:21.680 I'd like to suggest to you, what if your longing isn't a problem to fix, but a sign pointing you home? 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.039 What if that ache is there for a purpose? 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:28.000 C.S. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.919 Lewis in the classic Mere Christianity writes this. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:43.599 Our lifelong nostalgia, lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:58.879 To be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:08.159 That there's this ache, this longing, somehow sitting on the outside peering in. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:19.599 That word nostalgia was first coined by Swiss medical student Johannes Hoffer, where he took two Greek words and put them together. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:25.039 Nastas, meaning homecoming, and algas, meaning pain. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:30.159 This sense of pain, of sitting, this ache. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.599 The truth is we're all spiritually homesick, aren't we? 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:40.400 We all carry with us this ache. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:52.000 No matter what kind of home we grew up in, we have a longing for some idea of home. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.080 Tim Keller writes this about home. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:59.680 Home is a powerful but elusive concept. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:07.759 The strong feelings that surround it reveal some deep longing within us for a place that absolutely fits and suits us. 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:12.400 Where we can be or perhaps find our true selves. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:23.199 Yet it seems no real place or actual family ever satisfies these yearnings, though many situations arouse them. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:32.959 And so we live with this ache, this longing, a spiritual homesickness. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:43.439 In Genesis 2, we find the original home for humanity, the place God made for humanity's flourishing. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:50.000 And I want to do something because we're going to teach through Genesis 2 together for the next five weeks. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.160 I want to read the entire chapter. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:53.519 Can I do that with you? 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:54.639 It's a little long. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:55.600 I understand that. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.240 Would you open your Bibles up to Genesis 2? 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:04.079 And if you don't have a Bible, you can download UVersion app on your phone and you can go to Genesis 2. 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:07.920 We're going to begin in verse 4 and just recognize it. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.639 It is a little lengthy, but it'll set up the entire series. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:14.000 We'll be in this chapter for five weeks together. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:22.079 Genesis 2, 4 says, This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:28.959 Now Genesis 1 is the macro vision of how God created everything and why it all matters. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.199 Genesis 2, we zoom into the creation of humanity. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:34.160 Verse 5. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:45.120 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:53.199 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:59.839 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in east of in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:09.199 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food, and the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:10.319 Verse 10. 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.680 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.720 From there it was was separated into four headwaters. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:18.879 The name of the first is the Pishon. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:23.519 It winds through the entire land of Havala, where there was gold. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:26.879 The gold of that land is good, which I generally think is gold is good. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:27.360 Thank you. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.360 Aromatic resin and onyx are there also. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:34.079 The name of the second river is the Gihon. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:36.639 It winds through the entire land of Kush. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:38.879 The name of the third river is the Tigris. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:43.360 It runs along the east side of Ashur, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:48.079 The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to care for it. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:57.680 And the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat it from it you will certainly die. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:01.680 The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:03.439 I'll make a helper suitable for him. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:08.240 Now the Lord formed out of the ground all the wild animals, all the birds in the sky. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:14.800 He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:19.279 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:22.240 But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:30.240 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:36.079 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:42.800 Then the man said, This is now bone in my bone, flesh in my flesh, she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:49.279 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:55.279 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:59.759 What do you do about the ache within you? 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:08.240 And what if the longing isn't a problem to fix, but a sign pointing you home? 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.879 Today the sermon title is The Longing for Home. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:12.480 Would you go ahead and say that to your neighbor? 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:14.000 The longing for home. 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:36.559 In Genesis 2, we we come across four aches, four longings, four things that are signposts returning us to our original home, the home we were truly made for. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:43.679 The first thing I want you to notice is that we all have this ache is the heart aches for permanence. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:47.200 The heart aches for permanence. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.360 We live in a transient, ever-changing world. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:54.480 Fast-paced, nonstop. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:59.679 We move more than any other time in human history. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.279 In fact, millennials and Gen Z move than any previous generation. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:07.840 The average millennial moves twice every two years. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:20.879 Psychologists say of this time and age that there is a rootlessness, a constant sense of disconnection leading to anxiety and depression. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:27.039 We swap cities, careers, communities, hoping the next one will finally be it. 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:30.480 The heart aches for permanence. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:34.960 We do this relationally. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.039 Love immediately wants it to be permanent, doesn't it? 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:45.039 Like when you start to fall in love, you want to love forever. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:48.320 In fact, we do this with friendships. 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:52.159 It's a BFF, it's best friends forever. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:54.000 In fact, we even do this with homes. 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.919 It's like that's a starter home, but that's not my forever home. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:09:58.399 Why? 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:10.720 Because the heart, we have this aching in a fleeting world that passes by where the sands are shifting underneath us and we feel uncertain, unstable. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:13.120 We long for permanence. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:23.279 And Genesis 2.8 says, Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:30.799 See, God created a place of perfection for humanity to flourish with him forever. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.879 We read the story and, like, oh, that's nice then. 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:48.240 But the intention was this was the intended space for flourishing for humanity for all time in the presence of God in perfection. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:52.879 We're made, by the way, for a home that lasts. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:58.559 We're made for a home that lasts. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:03.919 Eden was more than a location, it was a reality where everything was right. 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:07.360 No loneliness, no shame, no striving. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.399 Life with God, full and flourishing. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:13.759 We were created to walk with God in the cool of the day. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:20.399 To work, to cultivate the earth without toil, to live in deep, unbroken relationships. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:23.759 It was home of the truest sense. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:28.480 I like how Ronald Rauheiser in Sacred Fire says it. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.600 We all want at the end of the day is home. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:32.879 Ease. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:34.159 Rest. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:37.440 Someone to be comfortable with. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:39.679 Some place to be comfortable in. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:41.279 A home, eternal rest. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:48.159 Deeper than our wander loss and desire for adventure is the desire to find our way back home. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.279 Ultimately, we want adventure only so that we can savor it and tell it around the fireplace. 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:03.679 The older I get, the stronger my ache for permanence grows. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:13.440 Because the more I see how fleeting life is, how fast things go. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.159 This last uh weekend, my family and I, we got to go to the snow. 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:19.840 We hadn't been to the snow in three years. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:22.559 We picked the one weekend, there was a blizzard. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:26.799 Um fantastic and scary all at the same time. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:33.600 Um Friday, we get up, we get up there Thursday, Friday, like four feet of snow had dumped. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.120 We're trying to snowboard. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:38.159 I've never been out there like this before, by the way. 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:42.399 I mean, you couldn't see at times, you know, 40-50 feet in front of you. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:48.080 You're on the ski lift, the wind is whipping your face, the snow's hitting you, it's frigid cold. 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:53.679 Uh, we're with my brother's family and another uh family friends, they're like cousins to us. 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:57.039 We're staying at a family friend cabin that night. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.600 Uh my brother and I are sitting on a couch. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:07.039 And you know, one uh as we're just talking, one of my favorite features about the phone, at least the iPhone, I don't know about you, Android people. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:13.519 My one of my favorite is I get these memories that pop up on my photos. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:19.200 No lie, I've been in a coffee shop with a memory pop up, and I just start bawling. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:31.519 I'm just like, oh my god, oh my god! And so I'm sitting with my brother, and a memory pops up, and like because they hear everything we say, um, but that's a whole nother sermon. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:41.759 But a memory pops up, and it was a family photo with our entire my side of the Ingram family, and I just look at it was 13 years ago on that day. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:58.879 We were taking this photo and seeing 13 years ago the ages of all of our kids and our families, and I pass it over to my brother, and he's like, No way, and we're like on the verge of balling, and then he's showing everybody else, but it just reminds us that life's fleeting. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:08.559 Even the very best moments of our lives, those moments that you try to capture that feel like, oh, that might have been it, that was home. 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:10.879 It's only a picture now. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:22.720 It's a memory, it's a thing you revisit in your mind and the emotions come back, but you can't quite hold on to it, can you? 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:27.440 Because the heart aches for permanence. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:47.519 And then Jesus reminds us of something so powerful and profound, and it's his some of his final words to his disciples before he's to go to the cross, and his disciples are hurting and they're living in the uncertainty. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.320 He says, Let not your heart be troubled. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:53.200 And then he gives them this beautiful promise. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:56.240 My father's house has many rooms. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:58.240 You want to talk about home? 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:00.399 Let's talk about my dad's home. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.799 My father's house has many rooms. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:08.080 If that were not so, I would not have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:16.080 Like, I want you to know that on this planet where you're traveling, there's a reason it doesn't feel fully like home. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.799 Like you get glimpses of it, but it's not home. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:28.240 But I'm actually going to prepare a home for you that is full and final and secure and eternal. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:41.200 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:49.440 The heart, our hearts ache for permanence. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:57.840 And part of that ache points us to the reality is we are created and designed for a home that lasts. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.000 We are actually created for Eden. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:03.200 We are created for the garden. 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:06.559 And we live in the disrupted in-between. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:14.720 And Jesus said, I came to restore that, and I want to bring you back home forever. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:20.320 And then there's the ache that our heart aches for presence. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.320 We ache for presence. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:34.480 Experts say that we live in what's called a loneliness epidemic. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:46.159 Fifty percent of adults in America report to experiencing acute loneliness. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:48.399 Half of our population. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:17:05.279 The Surgeon General says that this is actually a health crisis, and the impact on our health of loneliness has a similar impact as if you're smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:24.240 The heart aches for presence, and we live in a day and age where we're constantly connected and we have the illusion of relationship, and yet we live in isolation, in loneliness. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:52.640 Our greatest fear is to be fully known and rejected. 00:17:53.920 --> 00:18:04.079 And so we hide, we curate, we cover up what is deemed unlovely so that it will be accepted in some form, but we're never fully known. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:07.119 And then God breathed. 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:10.799 The Hebrew word carries intimacy. 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:15.039 There's no distant decree, cosmic snap of a finger. 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.400 This was touch, intentionality, nearness. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:26.960 God formed humanity like an artist shaping clay with bare hands, tender and present. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.200 And then did you notice like all that talk about rivers? 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:34.079 You are like, what is that about? 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:45.920 Like it's like a paragraph about Euphrates, the Tigris, and it says a water, uh river watering the garden flowed from Eden to the first listeners in the ancient Near East. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:51.119 Uh, this wasn't just locating where Eden was, this brought an immediate picture. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:19:02.160 See, what uh this biblical text is describing in their mind is the way the royal palace would design the garden. 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:13.359 They would always design it around a spring of river that would pour out or spring welling up that would pour out and water the garden and the grounds. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:19.359 So the Garden of Eden wasn't just a place for humanity, it was the king's residence. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:21.920 It was God's residence and presence. 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:30.400 It's like you were designed and hardwired to live and be at home in the residence of the king, in his presence. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:35.920 And even more than that, Genesis 2.18 says, and it's not good for man to be alone. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.759 The only not good in the garden. 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:40.400 We'll talk about that in week three. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:47.440 Like we were made to be with God and with each other. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:57.279 You're hardwired, our hearts desperately long for the withness. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.319 You know, friends are rare these days. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:08.400 Not because they've diminished in importance, but because we've increased in speed. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:14.160 We fill our lives with noise, screen, and schedules. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:19.039 But what we crave is real embodied presence. 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:30.079 And the entire arc of the Bible is all about restoring the presence we lost in Eden. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:36.000 Like we were created to walk with God in the cool of the day. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:37.599 The withness. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:54.079 Created, and we'll talk and we'll close out the entire series, that they were naked and unashamed to be fully known and have no shame about it, to be with one another, to have true intimacy without fear. 00:20:55.680 --> 00:21:10.799 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. 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.640 I mean, we sing the songs about Emmanuel at Christmas time, right? 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:16.400 Emmanuel means God what? 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:18.000 Guess what? 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:23.200 That's true not just then, it's true all year long, not just at Christmas time. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:32.960 Like there would be one who comes that is God with us, that has been God's heart and longing from the beginning. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:40.079 And Jesus steps into history, fully God, fully man with us. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:47.839 And what was Jesus' final promise to his disciples before he ascended? 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:52.960 And behold, I am with you. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:57.759 Even to the end of the age. 00:21:58.720 --> 00:21:59.279 Think about this. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.160 Greatest need, the presence there, your presence is to be fully known and fully loved. 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:13.279 God fully knows everything about you. 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.480 Nothing is hidden from Him. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:29.039 Every secret thought, every emotion, everything that you think if I showed to someone else, they would reject me. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:30.240 He knows all of it. 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:32.400 And he said, I'm coming for you. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:34.799 Not I'm coming to get you, that's how we hear it. 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:35.759 I'm coming for you. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.000 Woo! I'm coming for you. 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:40.000 That's not what he did. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:43.599 Love compelled him. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:44.559 Love compelled him. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:45.599 Love compelled him. 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:46.640 Love compelled him. 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:47.759 Love compelled him. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:49.279 Love compelled him towards you. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:50.960 Love compelled him towards you. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:57.680 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. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:00.400 And his love compelled him towards you. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:04.799 You are fully known and fully loved. 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:10.400 And that's the reason Jesus came fully for you. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.920 Our hearts ache for permanence. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:21.599 Because we were created for a home that lasts. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:29.759 Our hearts ache for presence because we were created to be with God and each other. 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:36.000 And believe it or not, our hearts ache for pleasure. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:41.279 Our hearts ache for pleasure. 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:54.640 Like 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. 00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.480 By the way, Eden wasn't just functional, it was beautiful. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:01.039 It was pleasurable. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:02.799 It was meant to be enjoyed. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:03.839 Genesis 2.9. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:09.440 And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye, good for food. 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:13.440 In the middle of the garden were a tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:14.799 Genesis 2.25. 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:16.559 And Adam and his wife were both naked. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:17.759 They felt no shame. 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:19.440 There was pleasure. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:21.440 By the way, Eden. 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:24.160 You know what Eden means? 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:26.880 Delight. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:29.039 Pleasure. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:31.759 The garden of delight. 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:34.880 No. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:39.359 It was pleasure without perversion. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:43.599 It was love without distortion. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:51.039 It is almost impossible for us to fathom the beauty and the wonder of that reality. 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.559 It was love without strings attached, without self-interest. 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:04.720 It was pleasure without manipulation or somehow using somebody for your own good. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:06.640 It was the garden of the light. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:07.039 Why? 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:08.799 Because we were made for joy. 00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:13.599 Psalm 16, 11 says, You make known to me the path of life. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:16.640 In your presence there is fullness of joy. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:20.079 At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:23.279 The egg for pleasure is actually an egg for God. 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:26.880 C.S. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:29.039 Lewis would say it this way. 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:33.519 It seems that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:39.440 We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:48.640 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. 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.200 We are too far easily pleased. 00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:58.079 And the presence of God is fullness of joy. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:04.880 See, the great lie that we believe in is somehow God is holding out on me. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:11.440 No good thing, Scripture says, do I withhold from those who I love. 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:19.119 Heartaches for permanence, for presence, for pleasure. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:23.119 The final ache of home is the heartache for peace. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:29.680 In Hebrew, it's the word shalom. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:38.000 Shalom is more than just the absence of strife and chaos or conflict. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.000 It's the presence of wholeness. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:47.359 That all is well, everything as it should be. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:54.000 Genesis 2.15 says the Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden. 00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:01.200 Now, if you were carefully following along in the notes, you'd notice in 2.8, it's almost like a restatement. 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:06.880 Like they just kind of kind of needed to remind us of this. 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:13.759 But in verse uh 15, that word put is a different one word than earlier. 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:21.519 That word means a place of rest and safety, dedication in God's and presence. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:29.599 Like the heart aches for peace, like the sense of well-being that all is as it should be. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:31.920 Why? 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.000 Because we're made for wholeness. 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:40.079 In a world of chaos, confusion, uncertainty. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:50.000 When there's so much like stuff going on around us. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:53.680 Brokenness and conflict. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:59.039 But then we have to recognize internally there's so much of that going on within us. 00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:02.480 We were made for wholeness. 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:08.480 Instead, uh we often feel fragmented, overworked, stressed, striving, always on. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:13.920 The inbox never stops, the pressure never lifts, the mind never slows. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:19.839 We want that shalom, that peace. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:29.359 That safety of home, where all is as it should be, no worry. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:36.880 And in the midst of our stress and our chaos, our uncertainty, Jesus offers a better way. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:39.920 And he says, Come to me. 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:42.880 Come to me. 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:46.960 Are you weary? 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:50.240 Are you burdened? 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:52.319 Come to me. 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:54.000 Are you lonely? 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:56.400 Come to me. 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:00.880 Is your heart aching? 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:03.839 Come to me. 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:05.680 Are you grieving? 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:07.599 Come to me. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:09.599 Are you confused? 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:11.680 Come to me. 00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:13.200 Are you doubting? 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.200 Come to me. 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:20.160 Are you struggling right now and wandering through life? 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:21.359 Come to me. 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:24.960 And I'll give you rest. 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:28.880 I'll give you shalom. 00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:35.920 All of us have this God-sized hole within us. 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:41.519 This egg that nothing else can satisfy. 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:46.480 And Jesus invites us and says, I am the wholeness that your heart needs. 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:52.559 Take my yoke upon you. 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:54.000 Learn from me. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:56.960 I'm gentle and humble heart. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:29:59.039 You'll find rest. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:18.000 We spend our days looking for something, for someone to fill the ache of our soul, to bring wholeness to our life, to mend the brokenness that we cover up from every one else. 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:21.680 So what do I do with the ache within me? 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:25.839 C.S. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.440 Lewis once again wrote these words. 00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:41.680 If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is I was made for another world. 00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:47.039 We are all spiritually homesick, friends. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:52.480 We all have an ache, a God-sized hole that only he can fill. 00:30:52.799 --> 00:30:58.079 And the home my heart aches for is not just a place, but a person. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:09.519 And Jesus, after he said that he goes to prepare a place for us, told his disciples this reality. 00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:11.119 I am the way. 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:13.599 I'm the way back home. 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:16.559 I am the truth. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:18.799 I am the truest thing. 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:23.119 The part of your soul that you've been longing for. 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:24.960 I am life itself. 00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:29.599 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:34.400 You were made for God. 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:37.119 You were made for God. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:39.680 Jesus. 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:45.200 Jesus is the way back home, and he is home itself. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:48.960 As we close, I just want to share a story. 00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:50.720 I've shared it a few times before. 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:52.799 Most of you have heard it before. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:56.400 But it just fits so well, I couldn't help it. 00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:03.279 Years ago, um, it was on a Sunday morning, I was getting up early to prepare. 00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:04.960 I was gonna head to a coffee shop. 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:08.799 I come out of my door and I see uh my neighbor's truck. 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.839 There's a guy standing next to it, leaning up against it. 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:19.200 At first I thought it was my neighbor Jerry, he's a construction guy, and so I thought, like, okay, he's up early, but then I noticed it's not him. 00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:22.240 Now I'm afraid somebody's breaking into Jerry's truck. 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:34.880 Um, 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, um, well, I want a fast getaway, let's just say that. 00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:37.039 I want to call the cops and just whew go. 00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:44.799 I pull up to him and the guy's leaning against it, and he's got his phone, and I just go, hey man, you okay? 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:52.160 He kind of ignores me, fiddling with his phone, and I ask again, like, hey man, you okay? 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:56.400 Then I realize maybe I'm asking the wrong question. 00:32:56.480 --> 00:33:01.519 And so I said, Hey man, do you know where you're at? 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:06.400 And I guess he had called his girlfriend and he's like crying. 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.920 He's like, I can't believe you guys left me. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:15.119 I've been wandering all night long, and there's this nice man talking to me. 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:25.119 Apparently, he was at some party, you know, was drunk, got walked outside, got lost, wandered the wild streets of Will Glen all night long. 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.119 And he was freaked out by himself, and he's talking to his girlfriend. 00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:39.440 And then he says this line, no lie, it's pretty funny. 00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:42.640 He says, There's this nice man talking to me. 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:44.720 I think he's sent from God. 00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:48.400 I'm like, well, I am a pastor, you know. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:57.920 And so I looked at him and said, Do you need a ride home? 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:01.440 He's like, Yeah. 00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:04.079 So come on, get in the car. 00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:18.320 And as we got in the car and were driving, and we started to have a conversation, he began to just say this line over and over again. 00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:21.840 I can't believe you found me. 00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:27.519 You saved me, and you're bringing me home. 00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:29.519 Like you found me. 00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:33.760 I was lost, I was scared, and you found me. 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:38.159 And you didn't just find me, you saved me. 00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:43.039 And now you're bringing me home. 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:57.840 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. 00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:01.199 And Jesus says, I've come to find you. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:04.960 I've come, I've come, I've come. 00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:09.519 I came to seek and save that which is lost. 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:19.840 And then there's just this reality for our hearts where we gotta realize that at some point we don't need help and we don't need advice, we need to be saved. 00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:24.719 We settle for advice, friends. 00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:35.679 We settle for self-help, minor tweaks to try to modify our lives to get better, and at some point we gotta say, I can't, but he can. 00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:51.440 And then the invitation, he had to get in the car, and you're bringing me home. 00:35:54.320 --> 00:36:03.760 What if the ache and the longing of your heart isn't a design flaw? 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:09.599 What if it's pointing to you home? 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:16.719 What if it's leading you to the one you were made for? 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:21.280 The one who can feel the egg. 00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:24.400 The one who came for you. 00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:30.239 As we close, I just would love for you to pray with me. 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:42.480 And the truth is, is every time we gather, 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. 00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:47.199 And today, his words are come to me. 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:54.079 And then it's better than that, I came for you. 00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:05.920 And there's those that you're just like that young man sitting by the car, and you've just been wandering. 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:11.920 There's been an ache and a hole you can't quite fill. 00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:23.119 And you've never said yes to Jesus, you've never experienced his grace, his mercy, his life, his hope, his peace, his wholeness. 00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:25.119 And this is the moment. 00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:34.880 This is the moment where you say yes and you experience new life erupting inside of you. 00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:39.920 Would you, if that's where you're at, would you pray with me this simple prayer? 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:43.760 Ah Jesus. 00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:46.079 I ache. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:56.079 I have a longing and I feel like I've been wandering and I'm hurting, and I need you. 00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.280 I believe you came for me. 00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:13.039 You died for me, you rose again from the grave for me to bring me home, to bring life. 00:38:14.239 --> 00:38:18.719 And so today, Jesus, would you come and make your home in my heart? 00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:21.760 Would you come and make me new? 00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:34.559 And if you just prayed that prayer with me, if we just keep our eyes closed, would you just raise your hands? 00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:36.320 Just raise them up high. 00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:36.800 Amen. 00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:37.760 Amen. 00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:54.719 God, I thank you for our friends in this room who stepped into life, who experienced your home. 00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:00.320 I ask that you would meet them profoundly. 00:39:40.400 --> 00:41:29.199 Upon your heart, it is of foundation, and I will put my trust in Show with your honey and love to me. 00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:35.199 So I'll make her room for you. 00:41:38.639 --> 00:41:40.719 To do whatever you want. 00:41:42.559 --> 00:41:44.000 Whatever you want. 00:41:46.159 --> 00:41:54.480 I will make her to do whatever you want. 00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.440 That's your prayer, but you said it's saying that. 00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:11.199 To do whatever you want to do whatever you want. 00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:24.400 To do whatever you want, whatever you want. 00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:31.440 So here is aware I lay it down. 00:42:32.400 --> 00:42:35.119 Every burn and every time. 00:42:35.840 --> 00:42:38.000 This is my surrender. 00:42:39.440 --> 00:42:41.599 This is my surrender. 00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:46.000 Here is aware I lay it down. 00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:49.599 Every line and every down. 00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:52.400 This is my surrender. 00:42:55.360 --> 00:43:03.840 I will make it for you to do whatever you want. 00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:07.440 Do whatever you want. 00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:12.480 I will make it for you. 00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:17.840 Do whatever you want. 00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:00.800 Jesus, we're grateful. 00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:10.079 We're grateful because you came for us, that you love us fully. 00:44:21.760 --> 00:44:23.440 In Jesus' name. 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:24.639 Amen. 00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:36.159 I don't know if you've ever been at one of those homecomings when somebody comes home that's been away for a long time, like you celebrate, right? 00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:37.760 You throw a party. 00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:45.360 In this service, just like last service, there was hands across the room of people who came home to Christ. 00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:49.760 And so can we celebrate as a church of this homecoming? 00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:06.079 And if that's you, we have a gift for you at our prayer uh table or prayer section, prayer corner. 00:45:06.400 --> 00:45:08.079 It's a corner that prays. 00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:11.760 To just help you on your journey with Jesus. 00:45:11.840 --> 00:45:13.119 And so would you stop by there? 00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:16.159 We want to give that to you, and we have a Bible for you as well. 00:45:17.440 --> 00:45:29.280 We're gonna try something, because this series is called Unalone, and the reality is so many of us walk in disconnected and lonely. 00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:37.599 And so we actually ended our service early, not so that you can run on to what's next. 00:45:38.880 --> 00:45:41.679 But here's what I'm gonna ask us to do. 00:45:41.920 --> 00:45:44.000 I'm gonna ask us to take five minutes. 00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:45.760 We're ending five minutes early. 00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:50.559 The next five minutes, meet somebody you do not know. 00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:54.159 I don't want anyone by themselves, nobody alone. 00:45:54.320 --> 00:45:57.119 And introverts, if this is freaking you out, I get it. 00:45:57.199 --> 00:45:58.880 I'm an introvert too. 00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:00.559 Two questions. 00:46:01.679 --> 00:46:04.239 What comes to mind when you think of home? 00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:07.840 Second question, I kind of call a second date question. 00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:10.159 Where are you at spiritually? 00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:13.360 There's no wrong answer, by the way. 00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:17.760 You can go, I just received Jesus this amazing, we'll celebrate with you. 00:46:17.840 --> 00:46:20.239 You can be, I'm so far, I don't know. 00:46:20.559 --> 00:46:23.920 I'm doubting, I'm wrestling. 00:46:25.440 --> 00:46:30.239 But we're gonna take the next five minutes, meet somebody you don't know. 00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:31.360 I'll close this out. 00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:35.360 There's a timer up there for you, introverts, to know how long it goes. 00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:38.400 Okay, on your mark, get set, go. 00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:40.239 Meet people you don't know. 00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:43.360 We hope you were blessed by this message. 00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:47.920 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:46:48.079 --> 00:46:50.239 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:46:50.400 --> 00:47:06.880 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash cards.