Delivered Out of Darkness

hi Matt Chandler here pastor of the village Church just want to thank you for streaming this sermon on your device I wanted to just before we get going here just lay before you a deep conviction we have that this video sermon that we've prayed really stirs up your affections for Jesus and shapes you and mold you into the image of the son would just be supplemental to your relationship with the Lord and in no way would replace the church you should be plugged into or the pastor that God has put over your life to Shepherd and care for your soul and so please enjoy the next hour or so of this message we have prayed that God would use it in a profound way in your life blessings from darkness to light this is the story we all share as the people of Ghana he draws us out to draw us in from the birth of Israel to the church today delivers and dwells with his people he draweth us out of our sin our Egypt and draws us into his presence into relationship with him [Music] hey good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those we're gonna be an exodus chapter 13 good to be back with you I thought Anthony more absolutely did a phenomenal job on the Passover last weekend and so what a gift of God's grace to us as a church to have men like Anthony who are able to rightly divide the word of truth and a compelling and powerful way and so I got to listen to that as soon as it was available and really set me up to win having now moving into 13 and 14 in Exodus so the book of Exodus begins to take a turn today and it's a significant turn that will really shape the spring that we have together as we look at the back half of the book of Exodus up until this moment God has been revealing himself in regards to who he is in the delivering of his people out of bondage and slavery and then it's important to keep in mind that as we've walked through Exodus we've said that Exodus is book two of five books which means when we read Exodus we need to be thinking the best illustration I could come up with this we need to be thinking like a Star Wars movie right there are other movies around it that make the whole make sense more and so what happened is back in the book of Genesis in movie one is that God comes to Abram and says that the brokenness that has entered into the cosmos because of sin God is going to make right that he is going to fix all that is broken in sin being introduced into the cosmos and he's gonna do that through the line of Abraham and that through that line all the families on earth will be blessed so that we see very early on in our scriptures the missional heartbeat of God to see not just one ethnic group of people of him but that men and women for every tribe tongue and nation on earth come to be reconciled to him reconciled to one another and bring glory and fame to the name of God and so we see that's God's plan but in book 2 in the story that we're in the people of God have no real sense of themselves they have been in slavery for over 400 years so everything they know culturally and everything they know about how to operate has been informed by the paganism that they have been living in and so starting in 13 and 14 God begins to shape his people he begins to give them commands on how to live and how to operate in such a way that they will become that we will become four got a kingdom of priests that Herald the good news of God's reconciling work in christ to the nations and so what I want us to do in Exodus 13 and 14 is begin to watch how God shapes us and molds us into a distinct people and so I've got four points they all start with C I just say that because I thought you'd be proud of me and so let's dive in as we consider what it means to be the people of God the first thing that is true about us is that we as the people of God are a consecrated people look there in Exodus 13 one and two the Lord said to Moses consecrate to me all the firstborn whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel both of man and of beasts is 9 now if I had more time we could draw this line and we could flesh out really the meaning of what it meant to be the firstborn and so if you do remember and you've been here through our study when Moses first meets with Pharaoh he says that God Yahweh I am lion has commanded that Pharaoh let Israel go Israel my firstborn son and that if Pharaoh would not do that that God that would in turn take from Egypt his firstborn son right and so the Lord considers his people the firstborn son the inheritance and the authority of the family line went through the firstborn son so the idea of consecration for Israel was that the family and the wealth of the family and the name of the family and the position of the family belonged to the Lord so consecrate Shin is the idea of taking what is ordinary whether that be a place a utensil or a purse per person and you set it aside for exclusively Holi purposes and so you and I are consecrated by God what it means to be the people of God is we are a people that has been consecrated if I could simplify that here's how I would simplify it we belong to God that's bottom line so that the framework of my life the understanding of my world through my eyes is rooted in this truth I am NOT my own I have been bought with a price right that I belong to God and everything that I have is a gift from God and ultimately belongs to God so that I am not my own I am his right Paul would say this in multiple different places in multiple ways we see this as a theme throughout the Scriptures we are consecrated set aside for the purposes of God in the world probably the the most spanning kind of umbrella this is true about us verse that I know as Romans 14 8 here's what the Apostle Paul says for if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we died to the Lord now I don't know of another category now like if you're alive you belong to the Lord if you're dead you belong to the Lord and then look at how he finishes the verse so whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord's so what what's being drawn in that text is that we are his we belong to him so now everything in my life is rooted in that reality that I'm not my own so I'm looking at my marriage in a really unique way what that means is I belong to the Lord so what would the Lord have of me well the Lord's going to inform me we'll talk about more of this in a second than the Word of God is gonna come to me belonging to the Lord and say love Lauren like Christ loved the church in that he loves her and gave himself up for her so now I've got my marching orders I'm not gonna do that perfectly I'm gonna stumble about Aetna but I need to love my wife like Christ loved the church and I need to serve her as Christ serves the church I understand this to be the marching orders on my life even when I don't like it because I am NOT my own and when it comes to being a parent I see being a parent through the lenses of I belong to the Lord which means my marching orders given to me in the scriptures are clear don't exacerbate my children to anger so don't be the grown-up is the text do I be the grown-up and I'm to commend to them help them see and understand the majesty and goodness of God I've got my marching orders I belong to the Lord when I think about my money I'm rooted in this this money belongs to the Lord how am I to steward what belongs so let's see the basis of Christian generosity is that we understand that all that we have and all that we possess are gifts from God not to be hoarded but to be stewarded for the glory of God's name and for our own good we are a free people because we understand nothing is ours now I the very the very fleshly impulses of our God along with the world around us are gonna pull us away from the idea that we're consecrated people right so the God would say you know what it means to be the people of God you're consecrated you belong to me you're off to the side you've been set aside for special purposes that I'm gonna use you for sacred and holy things so set yourself aside as a consecrated people now my own flesh pulls against that right my own gut will oftentimes I don't know I belong to me like I know what I want I know what I need I know what I deserve and I can feel those impulses anyone else any whales feel that I belong to me no no I don't want to do that so again if I just backtrack there are times in my marriage where I know that God said you love Lauren like Christ loved the church and that you give yourself up for her you serve her and you know what my flesh isn't huh huh no I done tried that nope that's my fleshly impulse I know it's best for me I don't have to listen I agree with Pharaoh when he asked the question who is the Lord that I should obey his voice so my own flesh pulls against me and everything in our day and age pulls against this right every commercial we watch every television show we like every everything says no no you're the king you know what's best for you the autonomous self understands how to flourish give in to those impulses you cannot be happy unless you do everything your heart desires to do like we can't even Netflix and chill without being wooed into this I am God I am king I know what's best for me right but the Bible says you're a consecrated people and so what follows after this idea of consecration or setting ourselves aside that we belong to God is God instituting feasts festival festival's festivals and fasts in order to root us into his process of spiritual maturation I feel like God help us that in our day in age specifically in evangelical Protestantism we lack the ability to be formed like God would like us to be formed because there's an integrative approach in the scriptures that goes beyond mere intellectual absorption and brings the whole body and beam into spiritual formation and so not only are we a consecrated people we are a consecrated people who are called by God to commemorate or this is the idea of remembrance look at this Exodus 13 3 through 10 then Moses said to the people remember this day in which you came out from Egypt out of the house of slavery for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place no leavened bread shall be eaten today in the month of Abib you are going out and when the Lord brings you into the land of the canaanites and the Hittites and the amorite and the Hittites and the jebusites which he swore to your father's to give to you a land flowing with milk and honey you shall keep this service in this month seven days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days no leavened bread shall be seen with you and no leavened bread shall be seen with you in all your territory you shall tell your son on that day it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt and it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt you shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year God is weaving into the rhythms of his people the idea of remembrance the idea of getting the whole of the person involved in spiritual formation so if I could take the scene and place it into just a week in the life of the people of God once again we sit down at the dinner table and our son says hey where are the rolls I love rolls we have rolls every night where are the rolls yeah we were not having rolls this week well my rolls for the favorite part of you cooking where where are the rolls okay well years ago in bondage to slavery broken and hopeless as we were god saved us and he saved us so swiftly but the bread didn't even have time to rise and so we're taking this week and we're eating unleavened bread son because God radically and powerfully saved us and you see the institution of the feast of unleavened bread which was meant to be celebrated every year as a marker in which the normal routine and rhythm of life would have changed to remind people to route them back in their story to call them back to consecration where the world would say your king you've delivered yourself you know the way forward you know how to go the feast of unleavened bread routed them back in this reality God saved you you don't know what to do God's taking care of you God delivered you you didn't deliver you he picked you up out of the muck and the mire now it's one thing to know that verse and we'll talk about the importance of the Word of God here in a moment it's another thing to feel it in your gut and to celebrate it with a feast or a festival right and then as the festival of unleavened bread begin to grow and root itself in the hearts and lives of the people of Israel they began to notice this fact that leaven and and I know nobody hardly anybody makes their own bread anymore if the Denton campus was still on line with us that you know half of them would be like we do all right but I'm guessing most of us don't make our own bread but it when you make your own bread you when you put the leaven in the the thing that makes the dough rise is a process of decomposition of death that's what makes the the dough rise and so the Israelites began to understand that leaven not only was to be thrown out because of the speed at which God delivered them from slavery and bondage but also became a symbol of the wicked impulses inside of them that led to them rejecting their consecration and giving themselves over to those sinful impulses and so this was seven days every year that ended up with the big festival but started with the type of fast see God has shaped his people throughout the ages through fasts festivals and feasts in fact even Advent what we're doing these candles these readings these are part of a church calendar and I think every time you're at a Protestant Church you start talking Church calor Catholic stuff no it's not Catholic stuff it's how the people of God have been shaped by God throughout millennia and so I want to walk through the church calendar with you very quickly I won't highlight all the days in the calendar just the rhythms in the calendar but in the liturgical calendar or the church calendar you have the Christmas cycle so the Christmas cycle is four weeks of Advent right we're in Week three which is why three candles are lit here we're in Week three with those readings and and each cycle kinda has its own colors represented its way of decorating and and all of it is a way to kind of visually and physically enter into commemoration remembrance being reminded of God's goodness and grace to us and so after the four weeks of Advent and it's going to blow your mind there's a literal 12 days of Christmas so I know the kids are excited I don't think it has anything to do with a partridge in a pear tree but you can go ahead and do some study on your own here and then after the 12 days of Christmas you have the Epiphany of the Lord and then starting January 7th through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday you have what's called ordinary time and then after ordinary time you start a forty days of Lent which begins with Ash Wednesday and so if you've got Catholic friends you'll notice on Ash Wednesday they've got a sign of a cross made of ashes in on their forehead and what they're remembering what they're beginning to tune their body into through forty days of fasting is when Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem knowing he was gonna die knowing the time had come and he with all resolve headed to purchase us from sin and death as a trophy of grace for the father and they remember for forty days with fasting longing and then that usually culminates on a Monday Thursday or a good Friday celebration which leads into Easter this will blow your mind there's a fifty days of Easter celebration that leads up to the day of Pentecost and then after Pentecost from that Monday through the first Sunday of Advent you got once again ordinary time now these rhythms all come with corresponding colors and readings and celebrations and fasts and festivals and feasts and parties and they're all woven and all of them are serving one in to help us remember that we're a consecrated people to help us remember the faithfulness of God in fact the one that we do every week here at the villages we end our services in remembering the life death and resurrection of Christ via the Lord's Supper right that's the remembrance that we're consecrated we've been bought with the price that we belong to him that our salvation was not cheap and that God loved us while we were at our worst it's so easy to forget that communion reminds us festivals and feasts remind us fasts remind us they shape the people of God but we're not just a consecrated people who practice commemoration were also compelled by the Holy Spirit let's look at this Exodus 13:17 through 22 when Pharaoh let the people go God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines although that was near God said lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt now I want to stop sit in my notes it's just free like the kindness of God in those two sentences is stunning and so maybe maybe I can set it up for you like this maybe you're in a season of your life or you wish the Lord would just move this thing along a little bit faster I don't know what that thing is but what we see in this text it is the mercy of God that led them a long way do you see that that this people weak and weary from 400 years of slavery would return to their chains if they saw the Philistines that before God let them see the Philistines he wanted to shape them he wanted to strengthen them he wanted to mold them he wanted to bolster their confidence in him and his mercy and His grace so look I mean so he took him the long way if you feel like the Lord's taking his time leading you to where you know he's taking you I would never begrudge the long way it is almost always God's mercy on your life God will not take you a quick easy way that ends in your destruction because he loves you he takes you the long slow way where you murmur and complain because he loves you and don't worry about that murmur complain thing we'll see plenty of that in our text day so after that let's look at what happens here verse 18 but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear saying God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones with you from here now I love that faith you know when he said that 400 years before this moment so Joseph is saying God is faithful God does not lie God will keep his promise he will show up and when he shows up you take my bones this is not our and this is not our home we have a home and when God takes you like he promised to our home you take my bones I'll haunt you don't leave me here he didn't say that I just added that right so now here's what I want you to see and they moved on from sykov and encamped at 'litham on the edge of the wilderness look at 21 and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people now if you'll remember back to two weeks ago when Moses goes into pharaoh and pharaoh says okay i've sinned against your god i've sinned against you you can go you just can't take any livestock with you do you remember Moses his response we don't know where God's going to take us we don't know what God wants so we have to take everything so that when we get there whatever he asks we'll have and so now we see the kindness of God leading his people pillar of cloud by day pillar of fire by night and I think if we're not careful the impulse here is to go gosh that'd be nice I going to be great to go which job should I take oh there's the cloud okay you're going to take that job right should I marry this person pillar of fire this way okay you're the one there's a pillar of fire over your head right like the impulses wouldn't that be great and yet I want to argue with you this morning that we have something so much better than a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit that does the work of illumination helping us see and understand the nature and character of God as he has revealed himself to us in the word that what you and I have is the Word of God and so the issue is not what do i do where's the pillar of smoke but a type of laziness and and fear around to the Word of God that keeps us from being people who know the Word of God I don't know where it began I really don't know I've tried to figure it out I've tried to dig in it so I get I just want to know how things work somewhere along the way the idea of knowing theology and doctrine and going deep into the Word of God somehow became a synonym for kind of cold dead orthodoxy it's like the more you know the God of the Bible the less you love him the more you know the more crusty you get the more you love the more self-righteous you get and yet I just couldn't categorically disagree more like nothing works that way the more you know your wife the more you'll dislike her the more you get to know your friends the more you'll hate them the more you to learn about your neighbors you learn about this relationship the more you'll hate it I mean that's absurd no no the more we know learn about who God is what he's like and what he does the more we're in awe of him the more were driven by his mission the more were informed by his heart and the more we will love him my friend Mike Koz / here's an illustration that he uses he says that the basis of modern medicine and I know I'll get some emails from doctors but that the basis of modern medicine did not come about by studying healthy vibrant human beings it came about by studying cadavers and so they would take a cadaver and they would break it down and go oh this looks like the circulatory system works this way and then they would apply it and it's only been in the last 50 60 years that we've actually studied healthy vibrant humans and said oh this is how health works and I'm afraid that so many of us take the Bible and we treat it like a cadaver okay well let me break it down and what kind of genre is this and how does this and in listen there's a place for understanding genres and languages and things like that but ultimately the Bible would say this that in Hebrews 4:12 for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and a spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart so that the Word of God is not a cadaver the Word of God is living and active it's not merely a historical narrative the Word of God is alive and what it produces in its listeners in its peers is life not death to know it is to be infused with life another cost for illustration he would say I'll add to it he says that the scientist who knows everything about the strawberry from a scientific point of view but has never tasted the strawberry is that a distinct disadvantage to the two-year-old who knows nothing of the science but has actually had one so where I would add to his illustration is how much more does the one who understands the science behind the strawberry enjoy the taste of it when he tastes and sees this is why we want to be serious about you knowing the Word of God at the village church its wife last Friday night we had a big forum on how to study the Bible personally that's why we do the classes we have in fact right now you have opportunity to register for our spring classes you've got the whole fall we work through the first half of the book of Genesis now in the spring we'll work through the second half of the book of Genesis for both men and women we have my favorite class that we offer in our classes which is the story of scripture that helps you understand the symphony of what God is up to from Genesis to Revelation and how the unity in our scriptures is a beautiful thing to be marveled at and rejoice in at some of our other campuses there are search history classes but this is an opportunity for you to sign up and plug in to a place where life is happening at the village and to root yourself more fully in the Word of God listen to me there is a way that seems right to man and in the end it leads to death you're tracking with me there's a way that seems right to me there's a way that for us we go oh well this sounds right this seems right this seems remember we're being pulled away from consecration not towards it so in that poll there's a way that I just think this would please the Lord and the Scriptures my god no no that never pleases the Lord remember what we say that in the scriptures we see not only the nature and character of God but we see all of the doubts and thou shalt nots all of which are God inviting you into how he designed the universe to work for his glory and your good to be lazy about this to be lazy or to boil it down to platitudes where we proof text and we use a verse that doesn't say anything about what we think we're using it to be on a is to put ourselves in harm's way to rob ourselves from this god that loves us and is for us and so I want to encourage you to take some of these steps and then lastly not only are we a consecrated people who commemorate and remember and compelled by the spirit but we're also covered by the power of God two things I want to talk about when I talk about being covered by the power of God that God is faithful when we are not and secondly that God destroys his enemies setting us free so those are my two points on being covered by the power of God let's talk firstly about God being faithful when we are not Exodus 14 10 through 14 when Pharaoh drew near the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord now I want to stop there one of the ways that I think you can walk in the Word of God becoming living and active to you and we practice this at my house with the kids and and and it's a practice I try to do myself is didn't use my imagination when I read the scripture what I mean by that is not read things that aren't there but I want to imagine this moment so what you have is the people of Israel who now their backs are against the sea and what's before them is just flatland wilderness and what we see in the text is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of chariots and horsemen that are coming their way and if you're in the narrative all of them have just lost a son so now if you're using your imagination how angry are the Egyptians ready to slaughter right ready to be ruthless and grotesque and all the ugly parts of humankind absolutely and where the Israelites supposed to go they haven't been trained in war they're dressed for war but it's like Halloween yo right then in a fight we're gonna swim across the Red Sea they can't do that where are they gonna go the only way to go they're hemmed in the only way to go straight through this invading army that has bloodlust and it's coming to kill them and destroy them all but you know the good news here is even though they're terrified I mean how God has just been flexing for weeks now right I mean he's bent the whole natural order of things hail wind disease life death blood the whole natural order has been bent by the Lord to serve the purposes of God and all the promises of God have come true in this moment and yet the people of God and here's what we can be encouraged have always been slow to learn verse 11 they said to Moses is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness what have you done to us and bringing us out of Egypt is not this what we said to you in Egypt leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness to look right at me for a second and again I need to hurry but for I mean most evangelicals I know most Christians I know they've got this thing that if God would just do this thing then their doubts and fears and all that would just be alleviated forever and they just know the rest of their life they would happily be just full-on with the Lord if just this one thing would happen and yet what we see in the scriptures is just categorically untrue so this is a people that just moments ago again reading with our men we're in jubilation I mean they're free they're not only free they plundered the Egyptians they're weighed down with silver and gold and livestock and they have plundered and destroyed God has the greatest empire in human history up until this point the type of celebration upon that Exodus probably would have blown our minds and so now they're camped out got the camp set up I mean you can only what are you doing I mean you're countin your silver you're counting your gold I don't know if it's there I'm over here Bibles here conjecture and you're playing around with silver look at this silk tunic thing I'm gone this is a you want to trade for that I mean there's this kind of celebration be hard to get the mind round then they see dust in the distance well what is that is that a storm is that a and then they see oh no it's the Egyptians chariots and horsemen and soldiers and they accuse God you are not good you have not delivered us you betrayed us you are not force you who you are not keeping your promises I mean that's 5th gear to reverse in a hurry and it's how the people of God have operated forever so you know you I think if you put this in a different kind of situation you would feel I don't know how old your kids are but everybody's gonna have this moment with their kids on Christmas morning where they open up their present they say something like this they need to be discipled so they open never like this in the one I wanted or is that it or this isn't the right model and then as a parent what that does is it makes you crazy like you want to say really like crazy things like we'll just put it all in the car and take it back how about that since you're already disappointed I might as well help you out burn all your stopping in the front yard right I mean is this really about make you crazy they just need to be discipled right I don't know what happened right there I apologize probably took away from the sermon trying to get better and get better I don't know where that comes from Lance said something broken in here maybe you could adjust it in the end I'm sorry let me dial back good in the end like this is a people that you want to punish like imagine all that God has done here the great pains at which he's gone to bring them out of bondage and slavery and I mean they're not even completely out of it yet before they began to accuse him of being unkind accuse him of being cruel accuse him of not caring so what's God's response right let's look at God's response verse 13 and Moses said to the people fear not stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again the Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent God is faithful when we are not that's stunning that their accusation is you're not faithful you're not good you're not kind and God's response is don't be afraid in fact this kind of sets up a method of operation that God will utilize throughout the Old Testament when he just doesn't we want Israel to get it he's always kind of whittling down their armies right if you know the Old Testament well what happens like Gideon your armies too big well it's like it's like 1 to 10 oh it's God we're like we're like down 1 to 10 we're gonna get crushed yeah I did wonder tends to good odds bro oh I'm gonna ask you to win this thing down alright now it's one two twenty are you happy you know what no I still think you'd get a little cocky if you won the fight let's go again we'll load out ok 1 to 100 dots alright now you'll know it's me go get them and so this is what the Lord's done the Lord's going I've got you you haven't got you I've got you I'll save you you need only stand firm and be quiet and I'll deliver you I'll rescue you see God covers us in his power when we are faithless he is still faithful this is a stunning reality for a people that tend to be overly hard on themselves in regards to surely God's punishing me surely God is not for me surely God cannot ultimately deliver upon these promises of Grace and steadfast love and kindness and yet what we see in this text is the power of God over a grumbling complaining idolatrous people is I've got you Shh but that's not all we see here when we talk about being covered by the power of God is not only is God faithful or not but God destroys his enemies which leads us and to freedom let's look at this verses 26 through 31 in chapter 14 then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians upon their chariots and upon their horsemen so Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared and as the Egyptians fled into it the Lord through the Egyptians into the midst of the sea the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen all of the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea not one of them remained but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea and the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in a servant Moses now we live in a day and age where this idea of God's judgment is almost unpalatable but I want to point this out for us as the consecrated compell'd commemorating people of God that the Lord is just frees us up to love and serve with compassion and grace even our enemies this truth makes us first and foremost a missional people because we have no enemies that are flesh and blood we have only spiritual realities and the gospel call to herald the good news to all especially our enemies the Apostle Paul would say it like this in Romans 12:19 beloved never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord when people share the gospel with their enemies when people show kindness to their enemies when people go to places where they are despised and hated to herald the good news of the gospel they go understanding that bad things can happen and they will not avenge themselves why because you leave room for the wrath God what Marxist is a people of grace and love and compassion abounding in love isn't that everyone's gonna be kind to us because you got to keep in mind that this verse is in the context of an unbelievable amount of hardship that's befallen the church at Rome why don't they respond violence for violence why don't they respond hate with hate because Christians leave room for the wrath of God we're free to be marked by compassion and mercy to be known for these traits and that's why I said this is good news because my enemies don't have flesh and blood on right all that is flesh and blood is for me an opportunity to point towards the saving redeeming work of my God in Jesus Christ and so when we take these ideas together really the whole spring will be shaped really around one verse that we'll get into in February and that verse is this that you will be for me a kingdom of priests and so what happens if you look at a map and again we're gonna look at this in February you looked at God places the people his people significantly right between the two major empires of the known world so that was so that they might show the nations what it means to belong to God what it means to be consecrated by God and what it means to be on the mission of God to seek and save the Lost and to bless all families on the earth this is what you and I are caught up in this is why I just want to argue for the rest of my days that there should be no such thing as a bored Christian how could you be bored everything in your life fits into what God is doing like the reason you live in your neighborhood isn't some sort of weird accident or you really like that style of house God is uniquely wired you and placed you for purpose what purpose to herald the good news you've been uniquely wired in your gift set you have certain hobbies that you're drawn towards you have certain intuitive giftings that have led you to a career none of that is an accident none of that is an accident all of that is about the mission of God you shouldn't be any such thing as a bored Christian so I'm I asked for some space from some of our elders I wanted to it's been about 10 years since I've done a deep dive into kind of our area didn't County what's really going on what are kind of the idea you know idols present what are the kind of hurdles for people hearing and understanding the gospel and and here's a stunning reality that I it's been 10 years and in 10 years Denton County has gone from about 20 percent saying I have no religious affiliation which has led me to 10 years of saying people think they're Christians and they're probably not they go to church but they don't really have a relationship with Christ but here's a stunning reality as of last year 60% of Denton County self-identifies as non-religious 60% self-identifies as non-religious SONA in a time period of 10 years we've gone from only 20% saying I'm non-religious to 60% saying I'm non-religious now maybe you live in a domain of society where you going yeah I could have told you that but I think most of us because we run around with a lot of Christian people we have a tendency to see all these churches and we just think oh it's Bible Belt stuff and I'm telling you you and I have a beautiful opportunity to be salt and light to the world around us to live in such a way where we show hospitality will remark by compassion and love where we're filled with a zeal for the things of God because we've been informed by the Word of God understand how we've been consecrated and began to open up our home and open up our lives for the glory of God in this space listen me I love the gathering it's a good right thing for us to come together and remember and sing and celebrate and make much of the name and renowned of Jesus together as a family but the gathering was always meant to spill out of the gathering and into everyday life and when you make this the apex of what it means to be a Christian you Rob the weight of God's mission from your own life and the zeal of God's mission in your own life like the rah of superstar preachers and podcast and vodcast is a death toll on the local church's power in a context doing the work of evangelism for the glory of God like that's why if you download our stuff the first thing I say is you supplement with this but this cannot be your church because the church is grounded in a given location for the glory of God in the evangelization and the discipleship of men and women and so I'm pleading with you don't give yourself over to a version of Church that's a pep rally for Jesus on Sunday no God has called you to more than that God has called you to much more than that don't settle for good preaching in songs again night I love the gathering I love to preach I feel like I've been uniquely I mean my voice just done it's a weird thing it's been just loud it doesn't get tired no my wife sometimes prays that it was as it doesn't all right so so here like here's highlight of my weekend so this is the fourth sermon I preached this weekend last night at the bottom I'm right over here I'm just kind of talking to mingling and saying hello to folk and this woman comes up to me and I've only met this woman one time before probably two or three months ago I was same thing I'd start over here and I kind of work my way around and I was over here and her and her husband brought this young woman to me and said hey I want to introduce you to our friends so she introduced me to this young woman said hello it was great and she's and I haven't seen him since and then last night she came and grabbed me she said hey that that young woman we introduced you to we've been inviting her into our home for years we've been answering spiritual conversations with her for years we've given her some books she's asked a lot of questions and I want you know that night after church we got in our car and on the way home she said I want to say yes to Jesus how do I do that and since then she's given her life to Christ she's scheduled to be baptized man and I and in men I it's just blowing our mind watching her grow trying to connect figuring out how to navigate the Bible and it just brought more joy to me and my husband's life has brought more glad-hearted joy seen in God because that night someone they loves when they had opened their home to someone they had earnestly prayed for was transferred out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son and there is no sermon you will ever hear that will compare to the jubilation of being used by God in the miraculous and do not want to give yourself over to that and settle for sermons and songs I just don't I don't know why you would do it I don't know why you would do it you do it for long enough and what you'll need to do is you'll just need to start jumping around to different churches every few years because the newness and the sexiness of the place will wear off and so you got to go find something new so maybe be more charismatic or maybe be more liturgical or maybe instead go to that new kind of spiritual liturgical charismatic church that sings like this oh my gosh there's a DJ in the 4-year we've got right it's it becomes this weird kind of I've got to move around and get this high rather than give myself over to the mission of God God is forming a people look at me you are a consecrated people you are to remember to commemorate the goodness of God in your life with feasts and fasts and festivals in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine we'll do that here in a moment you were to be compelled by the Holy Spirit illuminating the Word of God and and you are to understand wryly that you are covered by God he is faithful when you are not and he will destroy his enemies which sets you free to love and serve and tell all of the good news or you can do Church as a hobby I think it's a lame hobby like lamer than some hobbies that are lame well I gets up there right so he who has ears let him hear let's pray father help us where we haven't understood that we're consecrated people that we belong to you we have areas of our lives that aren't fully surrendered to you well you Holy Spirit make those visible to us even in this moment that we might repent that we might confess that we might lay those things before you father we've been afraid of the Bible or we thought that ultimately the Scriptures would make us love you less we want to repent of that today ask your forgiveness the Spirit of God asked that you would put in us a zeal to know the word deeply to know the Lord more fully to stand in greater all of you we thank you that your Scriptures are living and active getting to the very deepest parts of us forgive us for laziness and fear and thank you that you cover us you are faithful even when we have no faith when we wrestle you're there we thank you that we've been freed to love and serve show hospitality and compassion to all because you will handle your enemies help us now as we consider that we're no longer slaves but instead you call us your children your sons your daughters help us get that in the deeper places it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 18,655

Rating: 4.8755555 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Exodus, part 16, delivered out of darkness

Id: A6GYC_L_lNc

Length: 49min 6sec (2946 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 12 2016