A Healthy Disciple

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things with the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] well good morning I want to take a couple of moments right off the top of our service to spend some time praying for Houston and what's going on in Houston already received three text messages from friends of mine in Houston two of those being pastors describing the situation down there is catastrophic in fact Bruce Wis Wesley who planted Clear Creek Community Church and has been in that area for 30 years says that it is apocalyptic down there that in the last 24 hours Clear Creek has received 26 inches of rain and it has not stopped and so I want us to spend some time asking the God who is able to allow the people of Israel to walk through the Red Sea on dry ground who was able to calm a storm to be merciful on behalf of brothers and sisters down there it seems to not be registering in ways that what we're seeing right now is something of historic and epic proportions in regards to the amount of rain and damage being done even the director of FEMA's come out and said they're gonna be in Houston for years and so I if you're if you're looking at and maybe I'm just on the wrong feeds it seems like everyone else's is concerned with the fight last night or things of that nature and and meanwhile one of the largest cities in the world is under water and so stories already of people that have got in their attics and then not been able to get out because they're in their attic and can't get go back through the house and and so there's a really there's a ton of horrific things going on right now down in Houston and I just want us to pray that the Lord would be merciful and that he would this storm just hit and it's just stayed right on top of them dumping water with no end in sight and so we want to just pray that God would intervene that this storm would just kind of dissipate and cease to be and so I'm gonna pray for us will you join me in praying and then we're gonna dive into Matthew chapter 13 father we just ask for your mercy we just praise you as the God who has all authority or power or might nothing can stay your hand and so we ask for an intervention in this storm that seems to sit right over a city that's filled with people that we know or love brothers and sisters of ours who love you and worship you and we just ask for the for the storm to break apart maybe even in this moment in an unprecedented mind-boggling act would you let this storm even as we pray dissipate and vanish from the atmosphere we're asking you to do this for the glory and fame of your name Jesus and so that men and women might know that you are the one true God the King of glory it's for your beautiful name I pray amen if you have your Bibles want to ask you to go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 13 just from the top I want you to know that this this message has been a little bit weighty I've wanted it to be intended it to be because I think we've grown in some confusion and I want to try to confront and clarify that confusion for the good of our souls and the glory of Jesus Christ so we're walking through our mission vision statement this fall and and I'll put it back up on the screen just to show you where we are we have covered so far we exist to bring glory to God and then that brings us to this week by making disciples and so what I want to talk about today is discipleship and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ because I think there's some confusion and so let me define what it means to be a disciple and then tell you what I see to be the confusion and then we'll dive into Matthew 13 let me put this on the screen discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them for Christians plural in community because discipleship can only take place in community there's no discipleship with you off by yourself that's not how this works this review refers to the process of learning the teachings of Jesus in the scriptures and following after his example in obedience to the power of the Holy Spirit discipleship not only involves the process of becoming a disciple but of making other disciples through teaching and evangelism now here's here's Mylene here's my push today there seems to be a misunderstanding and a creation of a new category in which you can believe in Jesus but not follow him right so what we've got in 2017 evangelicalism is a lot of people were able to say I believe in Jesus and what they're saying is that they believe in some historic facts they believe in Jesus like you would believe in Abraham Lincoln I know he was a man it seems like he did some good things I kind of like what he's brought about but to believe in Jesus is not like believing in Abraham Lincoln to believe in Jesus requires that we follow Jesus or we do not believe to say that you believe in Jesus but do not follow him empty's belief of its meaning you cannot say that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who has come to take away the sins of the world and to reconcile us to the Father and to redeem and reconcile all that's gone broken in the world but I have no intention of surrendering or following him I just believe that he was your declaration or your mal-intent and following him reveals that you'd actually don't believe that he is who he says he is your lack of following him reveals your lack of belief to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means not that we believe some things intellectually but that we've surrendered our lives over to his lordship and we are following after him anything less than that is not biblical Christianity it is something of your imagination in fact the the early church was actually just known as the way it was acts 11 that they're first called Christians so what what do they mean by the way well they lived the way of Jesus that that's what they did they lived life like Jesus would have them live life and so then the question has to be where would they learn how to live the way of Jesus well it was divinely imputed and divinely empowered here's what I mean that to be a disciple to be a follower of Jesus Christ who is learning the way of Jesus and following in obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit is to have imputed to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ so Christianity is not I used to wild out in college and now I don't you track it with it now that's not what we believe to be a disciple is not I used to sleep around and get high and now I don't it's not Christianity that's not what our faith teaches and believes that is the fruit of receiving a righteousness that is not our own the righteousness that we have has been imputed to us via the perfection of Jesus Christ so there should be no swagger in the kingdom wait we talk about this all the time you got no boast but the cross of Christ that's it like a loser you've got nothing to brag about or point to or celebrate or pat yourself on the back about all we've got to boast in is what Christ has done freely for us and this is hard for us it's hard for me I am an achiever by birth I'm a builder I want to make it happen I want to make things happen I want to lead in such a way that makes things I want to build it so it's hard for me to believe that that what it gives me access to my Heavenly Father is just the free gift of God's grace extended to me imputed to me via the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and yet there is no one following Jesus believing in Jesus that does not lean on and live by this imputed righteousness but this isn't the only thing that's divinely given not only is impute righteous is given but also the gift of illumination the ability to see the ability to understand what pleases God and dis pleases God this is given not earned no I I think the place you'll see this is if you ever kind of turn on the Discovery Channel or you pick up around Easter every major magazine out there will do some story on Jesus and the resurrection and what to do with that and what you'll find is a lot of biblical scholars who can't see the gospel for the forest right I mean they just can't see they they're an expert on this historical book that misses the very point of the book now what is that well that's that they lack illumination they can't see for all they're seen so the gift of illumination is a gift you can't do anything to get that you can cry out for it you can want it you can ask God for it but you can't decide that you're gonna be illuminated and that you're gonna be righteous both of those are given the disciple does not earn those the disciple does not make their own their free gifts but then following Jesus is not just imputed but it's also empowered that the Spirit of God fills us and empowers us to do what God has commanded us to do so here's here's the great news about following Jesus being a follower of Jesus Christ God will never ask you to do anything that he does not empower you to do you do that to you God has not done that to you you put expectations on yourself that you cannot achieve you do it all the time God does not do this to you you are more cruel to yourself and God is kind to you he never asks you to do anything that he does not empower you to do and I know you're like whoa hey man do you need a some rest bro and I don't have man I feel alive I'm just anxious for you I'm nervous for us if there's a category of I can believe but not follow eternity is at stake and listen huh I will sleep better knowing I have said these things to you than if I will not say these things to you so you can tell I'm not trying to grow a megachurch here today right amen this is not the way you do that and and yet to stand cleanly before the Lord I just have to say there you cannot say you believe in Jesus and not follow him that is something of your imagination that is not in the scriptures so the spirit does the illumination we looked at this first last week I want to look at it again this week it's one of those verses I want you to know so the Spirit does this imputed righteousness and illumination and then we find out that the Spirit begins to empower a second Corinthians 3:18 and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another listen to the last line for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit where's the transforming power of life where's the energy to force the fuel of obedience come from from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so now our obedience and following Jesus is divinely empowered not just imputed but now empowered so it's not that we get save and we just sit on our couch and wait to become holy that's not like we get saved and then that's it I don't know we're called in to something to be a part of something to be gathered in a community for specific purposes namely a community that's following after Jesus not simply believing in but following after so when the Bible says things like this let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey it's passions do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace you hear it say we'll have no dominion over you in other parts of the New Testament if stated like this you are no longer slaves to said that we have been set free from the Dominion of sin so that you have been empowered via the Holy Spirit of God to live a sinless life I know many of you like well that certainly hadn't been my experience I'm glad you're asking about that we're gonna get to it all right now so so here's the I heard Tommy Nelson up it didn't Bible say this one time I loved the illustration the phone will still ring but you don't have to answer it the phone will still ring but you don't have to answer it you have inside of you in your soul the power to say no and the power to say yes that has been divinely given to you empowered in your soul to hear the ring of lust and not have to answer it to hear the ring of anger and not have to answer it to hear the ring of greed to hear the ring you you name it and not have to answer it you are not a slave to sin any longer Christ has imputed his righteousness you have been empowered by the Holy Spirit victory is yours you need only walk in it so when the Bible commands these things God has it jams you up God is not set before you a calling that you cannot walk in he's actually empowered you to step into what he has commanded you to walk in right now I love this this is accredited to John Bunyan this is a little poem that kind of talks about the difference between law based living and what the gospel does here's what it says run John run the law commands but gives me neither feet nor hands far better news the gospel brings it bids us fly and gives us wings so I love that idea that what the law did it said dude dude but gave no power to actually do those things but then the gospel comes in and says let's fly and then gives us wings what are the wings that we fly on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to say yes to Jesus so then remember what we said a disciple was a disciple is in the process of learning the teachings of Jesus in the scripture and following after his example in obedience to the power of the Holy Spirit my guess is that many of us kind of heard the good news grabbed onto it and started just saying yes and following after Jesus and and somewhere if we're really really honest a lot of times what Jesus asked of us is easy to get and then there are those times were men it's not as easy like most of us we have these little areas of it's just wow you know you can have everything just don't touch this like when I became a Christian no one told me how ruthless Jesus was gonna go after everything I mean I think they did but I thought no surely not everything and so what happens is we've got this relationship or this fear or this anxiety or this and we don't want to lay it down we want to control it and manage it and hold it on to ourselves and so the Lord will say give that to me and we'll say no we'll dig in our heels and say no and at that point what we know Christ has asked of us in regards to being his disciple we have refused to surrender and and at that point our heart has been hardened and then it becomes easier and easier and easier to answer the phone rather than to ignore it and to walk in the power of the indwelling Spirit right so Jesus knows this will be our experience and so he tells this parable in Matthew 13 to kind of help us pay attention to the dangers that can befall us as we follow him and so with that said let's dive into this text Matthew 13 let's read the first nine verses that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea and great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down and the whole crowd stood on the beach and he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seeds fell among along the path and the birds came and devoured them other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil but when the Sun rose they were scorched and since they had no root they withered away other seeds fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them out other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain some a hundredfold some sixty some thirty he who has an ear let him hear now what happens next in this parable it is actually super encouraging to me so he he tells this parable to the crowd and says he who has ears let him hear and then what happens is his disciples come up to and go we don't know what you're talking about like look we we don't I don't know how you're expecting them to understand cuz men we're with you 24/7 boss and we don't know what you're talking about in fact if you use your imagination I can just imagine Peters like hey Jesus real quick this guy just came up and asked me he was like what is he talking about so I said you need to pray about that and see what the Spirit says and so hurry I need to know what this means so I can go tell this guy what you want him to know right it's just comforting to me that these brothers who have spent all this time with Jesus just heard Jesus teach and they're like uh-oh you know because he's not saying it to the crowd even those closest to him are like we don't know what you're talking about so what's comforting is without just laying in to his disciples Jesus then explains the parable looking first eighteen here then the parable of the sower when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away what has been son in his heart this is what was sown along the path as for what was sown on the rocky ground this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in himself but endures it for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately falls away as for what was sown among the thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful as for what was sown on good soil this is the one who hears the word and understands it he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another sixty and in another thirty so you've got a in this parable four types of soil the first hears the word but does not understand it I think what's happening in this part of the text is those there's this category for people who are just not spiritually open and so they're not interested in spiritual conversations they're not interested in spiritual realities and and so our role in that place is to simply pray that God would soften the ground pray that God would give them understand we don't write people off who are not spiritually open we pray that God would create a sensitivity toward spiritual realities and and then what we see happen in the second soil is where as followers of Jesus I think we just need to be aware that this is a possibility in fact I I think I see it often not just in larger evangelicalism but even in our own church the the first illustration he used as a place where as followers of Jesus Christ we need to be paying attention to our life and doctrine closely is this idea of someone who hears the word and receives it with joy and then the Sun comes out and scorches it and kills it so when you first read that you're like okay but then when he explains it here's what he says that this is a person who hears the gospel and receives it with great joy and when tribulation and persecution come they scorch shrivel up and die because they have no root the first danger as followers of Jesus Christ disciples is having no real root and that gets exposed in persecution and tribulation now whether we're taught it or not there is an almost every one of us this insidious prosperity gospel belief that we have lived in such a way that we deserve the blessings of God right so so we would never articulate it that way but what I've seen time and time and time again is those who in persecution or tribulation or difficulty befall their life they have this long list of reasons why it shouldn't be them and that God owes them like they're good people they go to church again that one time they even gave you know they're not as bad as other people God should bless me like I deserve to be blessed by God and again this idea that giving our lives to Jesus means that we have put him in our debt is absurd and found nowhere in the scriptures like if anything Christians should never be surprised by tribulation and difficulty the Bible is full of it like who gets out without bleeding without lost without morning without hurting who you guys want to just walk through the Bible Jesus nope crucified unless you hyper spiritual eyes that that's a real physical body that's torn to pieces that's punched spit on mocked and hung up in shame dying a death for our sins that's the legitimate physical plane that's not spiritual pain although you could argue there's a there's significant spiritual pain on the cross also Moses we love big Moe right we spent nine months walking through the book of Exodus Moses wanders the desert for forty years with grumbling complaining church folk church folk have changed over the days but but back then they were grumbling and complaining and then he doesn't even get to go into the promised land right he dies on the Mount he doesn't even get to beat grab the inheritance that was promised in fact he you see him next on the Mount of Transfiguration seeing the glory of Christ revealed there's his reward you want to talk prophet of you know what talk Jeremiah Jeremiah goes into exile with everyone else in Israel despite the fact that he fled with them to repent and believe the you yes wanted you know want to keep going John the Baptist beheaded Jesus said of that God if there wasn't there's not a greater born among man than John the Baptist and he got his head cut off after he was in prison per the request of a stripper she wouldn't think that that's how the greatest man born would would go out right but that's how he went oh y'all want talk about Paul great cuz that's who was next on my list Paul just he had his conversion it was said of him by Jesus I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name and he is repeatedly beaten thrown into prison has the hard work of planting churches have false teachers coming behind him and destroy what he has built he is beaten significantly and often a couple of times left for dead like they thought he was dead and left him they beat the skin off his back they beat that dude with rods they I mean just constantly got so he was shipwrecked twice and one of those shipwrecks he sweat got to shore on multi goes to to build a fire and gets bit by a snake I would have lost my mind right I mean here you are you're out there evangelizing the world you're telling everybody about Jesus Christ you're operating in great power and at every turn you're beaten you're thrown in prison your hard work is torn down by those who are lying and then you get in another shipwreck finally make it to shore exhausted go try to start a fire and you get bit by a poisonous Viper I'm just saying you're passed by come on and and yet here he is and if you want to he makes it to Rome and gets his head cut off Peter crucified upside down John the disciple whom Jesus loved boiled alive tradition tells us didn't die freaked out the Romans so they exiled him to Patmos who else you want to talk about you can't name the guy or woman live in a broken world tribulation persecution should never surprise us the idea that giving your life to Jesus Christ means a life of ease without suffering I don't know where we're getting it it's certainly not our Bible now although it shouldn't surprise us what we see in the Bible is it can and it's okay for it to shake us you shouldn't be surprised by it but you will get shook by it and here's here's how I want to just kind of help us today it's okay to get shook by it so remember we were talking about Paul you know shipwrecked beat all that like if you think about his testimony it's just it's a pretty amazing testimony but like if you come and and I were to say to you hey Jesus saved me you'd go okay tell me about matters like well this guy named Jeff air class here at the gospel with me and walked with me friend then I gave my life to Christ well Paul's testimonies hey you know who saved me Jesus did you know yeah great like what like what was the who's the instrument by which Jesus saved you no you misunderstand Jesus saved me oh yeah yeah me too yeah yeah me too Jeff told me oh god do I even Jesus save me so yeah no no you know Jesus saved me like I was on the road to Damascus geez like what are you doing no you're not you're gonna follow me let's go Jesus actually say be the instrument of my salvation in Christ was actually Jesus and then when you think about his ministry right the the Bible tells us that the Apostle Paul's handkerchief and aproned he'll people like we would just take his hand and throw it on somebody would he'll like this is a kind of he told one guy what allowed to be dead he went to a place called the third heaven I don't know what that is I don't know that I've been to the first but he had been at the third year talking about a man who walked in supernatural power who had verbally had a conversation with Jesus Christ post resurrection and here's what he says about the sorrows of a broken world perplexed but not crushed perplexed but not crushed look at me I get it I get that on this broken planet right now really difficult painful awful evil deplorable despicable horrific things can happen I get it and what the Bible says what the Bible grants and are not being surprised by those things is that it's still ok to be show by them I'm perplexed I'm confused now what I want to invite you into it's not to pretend not to no longer pretend that that's not your reality so man if you've walked in some of that and listen I I know a lot of people who have I know a lot of people that are really they they sprung up quickly I love Jesus I'm gonna follow Jesus and then the hurts of this world began to make it difficult for them to believe that God is trustworthy and good and what happens in an achievement based culture and we've been talking a lot about that in this series when you feel like you've got to achieve then you can't be honest about your disappointment you can't be honest about your wrestle with whether or not God is good you can't be honest about the this break between God being good and holy and right and beautiful and what you've experienced and so what you do is you try to just deal with that yourself and and the devil loves to get us all alone because that's where he can destroy us when the invitation is hey just in the assembly I'm perplexed this doesn't make sense I need help man I am struggling with this I don't get it like this is the Apostle Paul this is third heaven handkerchief healing people perplexed I'm perplexed I don't get this I've spoken to Jesus face-to-face post resurrection I'm struggling a bit Here I am perplexed and so one of the things that can rob us of following after Jesus Christ is being theologically thin you tracking with me on when I say that being theological eath in theology and the study of who God is and what God is like doesn't lead to cold dead Orthodox here at least it shouldn't it should lead to an understanding of His goodness and grace that brings a vibrancy and death purpose and meaning to the Christian life so to see him for who he is to gaze upon his beauty to know his purposes and plans as much as we can know them in this kind of millisecond we're in the creative order is to have a type of rudeness that although were perplexed although we mourn although we heard we can lean in and Trust we can lean in with hope we can with our brothers and sisters and in community hang on to the words of God it's being true and right and good but this isn't the only warning he gives us not only is there this category of having no root being then but then he goes on and he says the second thing that as disciples his followers we need to be mindful of his he talks about the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches now what's interesting to note about the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches is that he describes that process not as immediately they fall away but rather they're choked out so I don't know if you've ever been choked out let me describe the experience getting choked out is not like getting knocked out you're tracking with me so when you get knocked out that's kind of like instantaneous or so Josh Patterson told me when you get choked out it takes a little while right like being choked out is to have the air cut off from getting to your brain it's not instantaneous it takes a little bit and so when he talks about the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches he's not talking about what happens in tribulation and persecution where it can happen in an instant but rather over a period of time we can be subdued we can be rendered spiritually unconscious without even knowing it and so what does it well he says the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and they're tied to one another let me explain when we talk about the cares of the world how do the cares of the world choke out our fruitfulness as followers of Jesus Christ well if I could just ask three questions around the cares of the world here here's the mantra of someone who is being choked out by the cares of the world how do I control this how do I manage this how do I manipulate this to my will that's the mantra of someone being choked out by the cares of the world how do I control this how do I make this be what I want it to be how do I manage this and how do I manipulate my will into being via life so what happens is you feel the pressure of the world and your own fears and insecurities and rather than trusting in God and lean and God you leap to action and you manage and you control and you manipulate and you become the sovereign over your world and the false pretense of being able to control the world around you it look at me it's a trap the more anxiety you feel the more you act in controlling ways the more anxiety you feel and and downward it's spirals what might just lift the weight of anxiety is trusting and someone who actually has some power to do things you can't control other people you can't manage them you can't manipulate them to the point where you flourish and are filled with joy and they flourish and are filled with joy what you can do trusting in the imputed righteousness of God empowered by the Holy Spirit of God is lean into the sovereign reign of our King and trust him follow him in obedience grow in His grace grow in his kindness and then he ties this kind of controlling managing manipulating thing to the deceitfulness of wealth and riches now why would he tie those two together because what makes us feel most safe and most in control is it not money do we not feel most in control of our own destiny when he got some when we got some cash and then know something you're like I don't know maybe I'm maybe one day okay so here's what you don't have to be crazy wealthy for this to be true there is a type of Reliance and desperation that occurs when you've got to really kind of trust that the Lord is going to provide that vanishes when you don't feel like you need the Lord to provide because you feel like you've provided for yourself like like just to use my own life is an illustration when Lauren and I got married I was making twelve thousand dollars a year that's before taxes now to be fair when you're making twelve K here the tax what they're taking in a lot right but when you're making twelve thousand year no matter what they took it was a lot and Lauren and I were in this place in life where we're living in married student housing thank God because we couldn't have lived anywhere else that may be a tent somewhere and so here we are and every little thing had to be teased out we were both still in school I was not on any scholarships to speak of and so man we're trying to pay for school we're trying to stay alive 12 K ate a lot we're trying to pay bills and meant some of our biggest fights back in those days would be for one of us to come home and the other one drank a full coke without sharing it like you can't do that we gotta split that maybe twice that's two separate see like a little shot glass of cokes mmm sugary goodness and I'm saying there was a weight on us in those days that we needed the Lord to come through if I'm gonna go if I'm gonna finish my degree we need the Lord to come through you're gonna finish your degree we need the Lord to come through if we're gonna be able to make rent and eat something aside ramen noodle we're gonna happen insert any protein and to our doubt we're gonna need the Lord to come through and then here's what's happened over time the way we have budgeted has not changed the percentage that we've been committed since we got married to give away has not changed but the Lord's blessed financially I don't make 12 grand a year anymore and and you can feel the alleviation of that pressure now let me tell you what I'm not saying I wish I had more time I'm not saying that wealth is a bad thing I'm not saying that you should feel ashamed or guilty if you have money and a lot of it in fact I would never want you feel I think you've been blessed by the Lord you just need to make sure your money to known you see what Jesus teaches is that no man can have two masters he will serve one and he will neglect the other you won't be able to serve God and money so if I could kind of change the wording of that and you don't need to email me this isn't the inerrant Word of God I'm saying if I can help you understand that no one can put their trust fully in God who has their trust fully and money you will neglect one your tomorrow and your security tomorrow is either in God or in your ability to save and invest enough and I'm not one of those guys that thinks you shouldn't be saving and investing in fact I would say wisdom says you should save and you should invest and yet your future is not secured because of that nest egg your future is secure because you belong to the sovereign king of glory tracking with me so this is now this jokes us out do you see how it could choke you out you see how man if you're like Gus lie it's chaos it meant everything like here's here's the limitation of a sermon all week long you are being bombarded with fear-mongering clickbait all week long the end of the world has never been this bad before we're in the middle of a race war we're in the middle of an economic meltdown Trump's gonna burn the world to the ground war with North Korea war with Mexico war with the storm lunar eclipses means this right it's just a fear fear fear fear fear so what does that do oh my god what are we gonna do Trump's gonna kill us all I knew it well we're our options so storehouse storehouse forget cast we need gold forget cast we need silver forget cast I want rifles and ammunition and smoke grenades we're gonna make it and it's this we've got to make our own future forget cash we need land right I am so off the rails right now and yet you should never applaud that it encourages what shouldn't be encouraged and and so then what I've got is I've got 40 minutes ago no no no no no no no it's God's on his throne God's not panicked God ain't anxious the Trinity has not huddled up to figure out Trump these things have not happened God is on his throne God is working his sovereign plan and calling his followers to follow him but you can see you give in to fear you give into the cares of this world you start to try to manage and control and manipulate oh how can you breathe you're not free you're enslaved you're trusting in money yeah that's the I love the way the deceitfulness of riches is like it's an illusion and and so here's my confession I have not served you well around the deceitfulness of riches and I'll explain why I was hired when I was 28 years old right I even went urges come to me now way like we're looking at this kid he's 28 no real pastoral experience you can preach alright I'll be like you or an 80 if you hire that kid right but but then so maybe I'm saying to those of you on the search thing you were an idiot back then but but what I did is I came in and I didn't want I was far more concerned I didn't want to grow a church from transfer growth are you tracking with me I don't want Christians and other churches to go oh oh oh' his church is better let's go over there I didn't want that I wanted it to be grimy I wanted unbelievers and skeptics and people who've never felt comfortable or in church to come and hear the word of God to be pushed and challenged by it and so in light of that I I never wanted to give the skeptic I never wanted to give the unbeliever ammunition to not listen to the gospel and so one of the first decisions say we're not gonna pass the plate anymore we're gonna put joy boxes in the corner and people can give as they leave running it because I don't want to give them ammunition and where I failed you who are sons and daughters of God is I have not given you good teaching around stewardship around the dangers of money and around the joy of generosity and open-handed giving and you don't need to brace yourself for a Giving Campaign that's not what I'm setting us up for I'm saying to you I need to end time do better around this idea because Jesus thinks money and how you look at it what you do with it is a very very very big deal he teaches on it more than he teaches on heaven and hell and so we'll get there no need to clutch your wallet we're not going there today now here here's what I want to lay before you just as we kind of conclude our time together no one drifts towards obedience to Jesus Christ if you are not informed and fuelled by grace pursuing Jesus you were being swept downstream away from him with all sorts of justifications of what's really really going on in your life so my favorite quote around this is from da Carson I've used it here quite a bit over the years so here we go again people do not drift towards holiness apart from grace driven effort people do not gravitate towards godliness prayer and obedience to scripture faith and delight in the Lord that doesn't happen are you tracking without grace driven effort grace driven means I'm not doing these things to earn love to earn approval to earn blessing I am doing these things because I have approval I have blessing I have been forgiven what's motivating me is not to achieve but I have been freely given and so out of that I will move towards it's very important you get that we don't work to earn God is freely given and that empowers our moving towards him so no one drifts towards holiness you're you're not actively utilizing the spiritual disciplines to know the Word of God to grow in deeper community to memorize the scriptures to meditate on who he is to walk with one another in Christian community if you're not actively doing that working a plan you are drifting not towards obedience but away from it and then he goes on to talk about how we start to justify this we drift towards compromise but we call it tolerance we drift towards disobedience and call it freedom we drift towards superstition and call it faith we cherish the end discipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation we slouch towards prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism we slide towards godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated grace driven effort so let me conclude like this to simply state it again there is no category of I believe in Jesus that doesn't follow him that cannot does not exist we have created a category that does not exist in the Bible so it's not uncommon for you to meet people say oh yeah I believe in Jesus with no fruit no pursuit of him no it doesn't exist I want to simply state it there is no belief without following we have been called to be disciples followers learners who apply what we learned in obedience that's the call of the Christian life righteousness imputed illumination given divinely empowered to obey and given some instruction on some things to look out for look out for being thin spiritually not having root and look out for the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches so I end with this appeal if you're in here and you have just suffered some horrific things and those things have led to you questioning the goodness of God and how to reconcile his goodness with your sorrow I just want to say I get it as a minister I've just had to sit and some heartbreaking gut-wrenching horrific terrible rooms I understand it I want to invite you into the light with that you don't need to feel any shame around that maybe you were the victim of abuse maybe then something really horrible happened in your marriage maybe a loved one got sick maybe I mean there are all sorts of things that we could kind of agree on today as a community are heartbreaking realities what I want to do is ask you to step into the light to just be able to say to defeat darkness with light insane I don't get it I don't know how to reconcile these two it's been hard for me to believe that God is good having come from where I've come from and Steffan to the line you you you don't need to feel ashamed of that you're gonna find yourself among a choir of brokenness or maybe in the Lord's mercy at some point today you've realized oh my gosh I have been choked out by the cares of this world I've been deceived by the deceitfulness of riches now the good news about that imputed righteousness that cannot be earned by that is as Christians it rests over us as a banner so that to step into the light and say I don't know if I can trust him to step into the light and say man I have really given myself over to the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches is not met with condemnation but forgiveness mercy and grace so if you've ever wondered why Christians sing and why we rejoice and while we get glad-hearted about Jesus it's because in the light of our shame it's always met with grace it's not heap condemnation upon those who have confessed their condemnation he meets it with mercy that's why we keep running to him that's why we keep getting back up because mercies abound anew every morning for all of us who are in Christ let's pray father help us it's not always easy to see especially if we've been choked out unconscious just operating at deeper spiritual levels that were unaware of will you in your mercy give us eyes to see do that work of illumination I pray for my brothers and sisters who have suffered who have experienced a tribulation who have experienced hardship because of the word because of life in a broken world would you build us up anew you draw us back in to your goodness and grace for my brothers and sisters that are choking gasping for spiritual air right now just overwhelmed by the chaos in their life some because of the world some because of their own sinfulness but the chaos of their lives those who are being choked out as they put their trust more and more and more into their own hands rather than in your goodness and grace that you would bring about freedom in the lives we need your help if you leave us on our own we will wreck this it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 72,851

Rating: 4.8438177 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Marked, A Healthy Disciple, Week 3

Id: 4coQVJuwtMk

Length: 52min 58sec (3178 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2017