Grace Made Visible (Part 1) - Eyes to See

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 well happy Father's Day how are you excellent if you have your Bibles let's grab them Isaiah chapter 58 is where we will camp out today if you don't have a Bible with you there should be a hardback black one somewhere near you under your seat or somewhere around you if you'll grab that and you know it's always important that you see that what I'm saying isn't what I'm saying but rather what the Word of God is saying one of us has Authority and one of us doesn't and and so it's always imperative that we lean into where the authority lies and that's namely in God's revealed Word to us in the scriptures we're beginning a new series today it'll be six weeks long we've entitled the series grace made visible and and so that's not that that's not unique to us or to me that little sentence core that little phrase grace made visible is actually pulled from an article that was written by Jonathan Edwards who was a pastor theologian during the first Great Awakening in the early to mid 1700s in in colonial life during that time the Holy Spirit poured himself out in profound ways and hundreds of thousands if not ultimately hundreds of thousands of men and women became believers and followers of Jesus Christ in fact the Great Awakening marked us and shaped us as a country and the effects of those three decades still linger to this very day and so it was a profound moment and what happened in that revival is that there started to be some perversions of what God was doing and so Jonathan Edwards had written an article about the evidences of genuine religious affection and so what what he wrote about and in this article that I read is is is here's how you can see a man or woman who has legitimately experienced grace and so I said two weeks ago when we gathered that you can tell the difference between someone who has an intellectual ability to define grace versus someone who's actually experienced grace in their guts now I would never argue that Christianity is merely experiential all right its intellectual it has historical roots it's all of those things but for someone to understand grace and not be able to extend it reveals that they don't understand grace right because if you understand grace you extend it if you've experienced in the guts of your being what it's like to be found wanting to be found needy to be found broken and find in your helplessness the mercy of God lavished upon you the delight of God extended to you then you will be hard-pressed to judge others cruelly to be very quickly to categorize and marginalize others because while you were at your worst you understand that Christ died for you and so what we're gonna do in and then I'll I'll give away the whole thing and then we'll backtrack and we'll tease it tease it out Edwards says that grace made visible is most clearly seen in the generosity of the people of God and and so this series is built around the idea of generosity and and don't I don't get nervous on a plate alright we're not trying to build a new building I don't need a new home we're doing great so generosity not not talk about offerings I'm talking about the freedom that comes from the human heart that has been set free by the grace of God that is able to hold life stuff and things with open hands so that they might ultimately live a joy-filled life where they feel like they don't have to manipulate control and keep a handle on everything it is a life of rest and peace and confidence in the sovereign king of glory and that's what this series is going to be about six weeks of it and so to set us up what I thought we would do out of Isaiah 58 is is what the prophet Isaiah is going to do for us is he's going to show us how grace is not made visible and and then some things that are present when we have experienced the grace of God and so what will happen this morning us as we read the Word of God is is my hope that is that some of our some of our areas will be exposed and then when we end in the last few verses of this text we might learn how to find rest for our souls that leads to generosity you don't ultimately get to be generous people by activity you get to be generous people as you experience and savor and wonder at the king of glory and so with that said let's pick it up in verse 58 starting in verse one cry aloud do not hold back lift up your voice like a trumpet declare to my people their transgression to the house of Jacob their sins so if this is what the pastor is hearing and study then you kind of gotta buckle up for the sermon itself correct I mean if while Isaiah is kind of going what would you want me to say to the people Lord he says get the trumpet what are we gonna do with the truck we're gonna declare to the people their sins and iniquities you just know that's probably a weekend you want to hit the lake alright like probably don't want to be there on that day I want to be on happy day where where's happy day where's John 3:16 when are we covering that one but that's not the call that God gave Isaiah in fact as much as people love if you got a church background you'll be with me if you don't it's okay and I say at chapter 6 there's this very famous passage among evangelical Christians where the Lord st. who will I send and who will go for me and Isaiah says Here I am send me and so people always use that as let's go guys rah rah rah and then the Lord response to Isaiah's Here I am send me with go and tell these people who will not hear and and who will not see what I have to say I mean who wants to enter that call of ministry go preach your guts out no one's gonna listen anything you say I honestly try to teach that to young pastors all the time you better be in this to be obedient to the Lord and not to get patted on the back or to grow some Empire unto yourself lest you sell out and derail your own faith and the faith of others and so here's Isaiah again in study getting ready to go proclaim the word and what does God Sam grab the trumpet boss and declare to people my people their transgressions and their sins but look at verse 2 there's two gets strange yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways now how is that a declaration of sin and transgression you seek me daily and you delight to do my ways and then look what he says next because we start to get a feel for what's actually going on here as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God they ask of me righteous judgments they delight to draw near to God and they say why have we fasted and you see it not why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it behold in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all of your workers so let's stop there and let's talk about this really what we see grace is not and I'll tell you why this is so important specifically for where our lives are geographically playing themselves out what the Word of God just said is that grace is not made visible with frenetic hypocritical religious activity all right that you cannot spot a genuine love for Jesus Christ and a glad submission to God our Father through religious activity alone now I am NOT I'm not against religious activity I am against like the Bible is religious activity that seeks to purchase from God his favor doesn't work that way you cannot purchase what is freely given in fact it is by grace we have been saved through faith and the faith to believe was given to us by God so the faith to believe in His grace was given to us the Bible goes on to say any fees ensue so that we would have nothing to boast in you got nothing to boast in religious activity cannot purchase for you the favor of God it is granted to you in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone it is the only righteousness you will ever have that is acceptable to God and so I'll tell you why I think this should at least make us consider some things where we are and in the South and I'm hesitant to call Texas the south it's kind of its own thing you you kind of measure South by things like sweet tea and and things like that and if you have to put sugar in your tea at a restaurant you're probably not in South and and so I don't know what Texas is it's just kind of its own maybe even Republic and we anyway in the middle of all of this there is an external type of religiosity here that is still somewhat applauded where do you go to church it's a common question not one that brings much offense but you get to other parts of the country and that question is a dangerous one a loaded one and so in a place where the goodness of man in many ways is still built out around his religious activity that this text should like some of us bear frenzied hypocritical religious activity does not equate a soul that has experienced the grace of God it's why so many people that we baptized over the years get in the waters have been grew up in church grew up in a home that talked about the Bible been around church my whole life and it's only recently that I've surrendered my life to Jesus Christ it's because although they were actively involved in Christian stuff they were not actively involved in a relationship with Jesus and man to make matters worse a lot of us went to Christian schools and and I'm not anti Christian schools my kids go to one but but when all said and done but if this becomes a routine a rote that is intellectual and and subtracted from a legitimate relationship with Jesus Christ if there relate if the language we're using around our relationship with Christ is not relational language than what can end up happening is you can end up just trying to earn his approval by checking boxes rather than actually knowing walking and resting in him and there will be no rest for those who seek to earn what God has freely given it's the equivalent of a man working 12 hours 12 hour days neglecting his family and neglecting all the areas of beauty and life in order to pay a mortgage that he doesn't owe you tracking with me you can be home tonight baby I gotta work late well you know baby you know the kids got this they've got this they really want you to be able I can't make it got to work this overtime we've got bills baby we don't have any bills who's gonna pay the mortgage it's paid for honey come home religious activity does not bring about legitimate love and relationship with the King of glory and Isaiah the Lord tells as he tell them blow the trumpet tell them this is not the fast I seek not the fast that I desire not the pursuit of me that gets them me now on the other side of things if you do love the Lord please don't start to go well I better stop doing religious at all right no no no no just because the mortgage is paid for doesn't mean you don't live there no hang out in the house if you are resting in the grace of God then we aren't if you remember back to two weeks ago we are motivated by that love and grace to serve and to give of ourselves and to live open-handed lives and to engage people who need help and to serve others and to empty ourselves of our selves motivated by his love motivated by that grace motivated by the fact that that bill is paid in full and then the second way that we know that grace has not made visible so we know it's not made visible by hypocritical frenetic religious activity in fact this is so that we're all hypocrites right Christians if you're a hypocrite still have a hint of hypocrisy left would you get your hand up real quick so our lost friends can see that we'd make a good home for them all right okay put your hands down so we're imperfectly executing always all right and perfectly executing but what these men and women are doing in this text is they're trying to put God in their debt they're saying hey why have we fasted and you not see why have you not given what we wanted they're trying to use God to get something beyond God it's not God that they desire it's something else and they think they can use him to get what they want I had to do a sermon years ago for a conference on the de jure CH what happens where men and women grow up in church and then finally there's punt the ball I don't want to do it anymore they're done and and what I found so often as I sat down with probably two dozen men and women who that was their testimony before the Lord graciously brought them back into or actually brought them many of them for the first time into a relationship of Jesus Christ is that what it occurred was this is what Christianity looks like you come and you do this and you do these things and you don't do these things and what happened is either they realized they stunk at it or they were really good at it and both of them ended up bankrupt so the ones that couldn't keep up with a checklist said this isn't working for me and left and they never even had a relationship with Christ and then have you ever met people that are just good being good my wife is that why I think she got spanked twice her entire life I pulled that off in a 20-minute span once Lauren was just good at being good she'd have to get taught yes ma'am no ma'am yes sir no sir she just it was natural for her summa laude to B's her whole life and to this day she would tell you why that's the professor's fault I mean just a good girl and there's a type of bankruptcy in self-righteousness that is foreign and painful to the self righteous soul a it's an interesting dynamic to watch self-righteous people hate self-righteous people he's not about strange that is like people who are self-righteous help a people that are self-righteous they're so self-righteous only they could be more like me so grace doesn't produce this this is not what grace produces it doesn't produce frenzied religious activity that seeks to gain something that it's been freely given to them and here's the second thing that we know grace doesn't work in the hearts of people verse 4 behold you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice be heard on high and and so here's the second thing we see we see that grace when present not the idea but grace made visible does something to our relationships that divides the amount of quarreling and divides the amount of animosity and violence that we feel towards one another this text is somewhat humorous they are fasting so they have they have laid food aside and they're using that time to seek the Lord and so the interesting part of this is read it in its context when you and I do dinner that's what like 3540 minutes of the day this is an agrarian society the preparation and the meal its sale itself would take hours and they have set aside not just meal time but work time to seek the Lord and yet somewhere along the way getting away from food has not created humility in their hearts but has rather made them violent have you heard of the word hangry it's That moment when hunger and anger collide and you began to act insane years ago I was counseling a man at the end of a service I was doing Metro Bible study down or over in Plano and I'm talking to this man and Lauren was pregnant with Audrey who's our firstborn and this man was just weeping and and you know telling me his life story and Lauren who was second trimester and has some blood sugar issues literally came and she grabbed my arm like I was her kid and said we need to go and like baby can please let go of my arm first because that hurts and then secondly do you have peanut butter crackers or anything in your purse Oh like I my sweet wife would never act like that she would never see a man bawling his eyes out and then come grab me like I'm a child you know you know in here and so literally the rest of that season and every time she was pregnant after that literally I was like maybe you have your cracker do you have you peanut butter crackers alright let's make sure you've got your peanut butter cracker so you don't lose your mind and treat me like I'm 4 as I'm trying to minister to a man whose hearts been broken by the gospel this is hangry it's what hangry is it makes you operate in a way that's contrary to how you would normally operate and what's happened in this text is instead of their fast leading them to humility instead of that fast turning their eyes upon the Lord it's made them violent towards each other and we even read in here that somebody punched somebody like how does that it you come to prayer meeting been fasting all day and it goes to blows so we know that when grace is present it does something to the relational dynamics that we walk in and so this is what we know grace doesn't look like and what it means when it is present and then from there I say it's gonna begin to unpack really what grace does like look like how grace is made visible and and so let's look at this mother where there's three of these and I'm gonna wrap them all up into one and I know some of you are a bit more linear like why don't you just do the one and cut 25 minutes off your sermon sorry I'm just not wired that way the Lord didn't make me that way but let's let's go verse 5 is such the fast that I choose a day for a person to humble himself is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him will you call this a fast a day that except is acceptable to the Lord grace is made visible when the people of God walk in humility when there is a lowliness and gladness of heart and knowing that there is something bigger than us and more important to us a pursuit of the Lord is marked by a lowliness of posture that houses our heads you are worthy you are holy I am unworthy you are magnificent I am nuts and has us in sack cloth and ashes what that simply means is that there is a confession of our great need and of our great failure before the holiness of our God Romans 8 makes it clear that you and I are being conformed into the image of the son we are being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ and what we read in Philippians chapter 2 starting in verse 5 is this have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on the cross this is if you are a Christian this is your future this is my future the more we mature in our faith the more humility we will walk in and the more we will gladly step into obedience that leads to death they will cover here in a moment ultimately leads to life there is no room for swagger like our culture loves it we love the kind of cocky guy we love the one that's just arrogant boastful and backs it up we love that guy we love him in athletics we love them in business we love that guy and yet the people of God are marked by lowliness by humility by a consistent confession of weakness and coming to our God for help we understand that we have limits our narrative is not that we pick ourselves up by our bootstraps that we make it happen that we overcome that we get it done our narrative is that it is God via his grace granting us faith to put in that grace that has saved us rescued us marked us and made us who we are that's our story the longer we follow him the more and more and more we will be law marked by a lowliness of heart it is a ferocious type of humility that gladly surrenders to God on high in fact the psalmist's would say this about those who are walking in humility Psalm 25 9 says this he leads the humble in what is right and he teaches the humble his way the greatest obstacle the greatest obstacle need that s in there to the fullness of life in your life is your own pride it takes humility to say I'm gonna trust God at His Word every one of your disobediences is tied to I'm smarter than God now you would never say that would you like if we were to sit down and we were talking about this this issue of obedience that you had know you would talk about how hard it is and why it's difficult and and how it even if you remember back to two weeks ago how it even feels like an assault on your dreams and and yet if if you let me kind of tease it apart what would happen is you would say I just think in this situation in this season that I'm in that the Word of God that part of the word of God doesn't apply to me I think if God knew what I would be going through he wouldn't have written it that way right this is pride this is pride as the primary obstacle to the fullness of life and joy we want an asterisk by certain parts of the scripture we wanted asterisk by certain commands of God because we don't want to do them because we do believe that we know what's best for us despite the evidence that is stacked up against that idea notion you are terrible to you you are terrible to you and so we see here the grace is made visible in the humility of the people of God the second thing we see here is look at verse say is not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo the straps of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke grace is made visible first in humility and then secondly when the people of God are moved to action for the overwhelmed the oppressed and the enslaved so if you'll remember to some of the things that we've covered two weeks ago around motivations is that ultimately as we're walking in humility we are a people who realized we were helpless and that God helped us in our helplessness and when you get that you really understand that when you really understand that you were picked up out of the muck and the mire and your feet were set on rug you didn't crawl out of the muck and the mire you were picked up out of the muck and the mire when you realize but God when he was the one that saved you he was the one that opened up your heart to believe it was His grace that was lavished upon you then you're able to extend it to others your eye begins to drift to the helpless when you understand that you were helpless and God saved you this is why if you think that God rescued you because you're awesome and he needed you on the team to succeed that your eyes will rarely go to the helpless your eyes will rarely go to the oppressed rarely go to those who are overwhelmed why can't they just be awesome like you why are they such a a life suck on the Christian community but when you understand that while you were at your worst Christ died for you if you understand that you were helpless and were helped then the helplessness of others draws you towards them doesn't repel you away from them grace is made visible when the people of God walk in humility grace is made visible when the people of God their eyes drift towards and their action moved towards the overwhelmed the oppressed and enslaved history is riddled with men and women the people of God engaging and rallying around issues of injustice to see them overthrown and from the transatlantic slave trade to on and on I could go the people of God have engaged around social issues not because of political allegiances but because of allegiance to the Word of God and how he's revealed himself and his will to us the the third thing we see here is look at verse seven is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh so the third thing and then I'm gonna kind of combine all of these into what what Edwards really was was making his point around the third thing here is the grace Grace's made visible when the people of God walk in humility grace is made visible when the people of God they see and are move towards moved towards in action the overwhelmed the oppressed and the enslaved and grace is made visible when the people of God die to themselves so the great paradox in the Christian life is found in Matthew 16:25 and here's what that says for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it now that's a great pet is a massive paradox you want life you want joy you want the fullness of life possible quit try and get it you want the fullness of life possible serve other people try to help other people have the best life possible that's how you find the best life possible but does that feel like doesn't in there just a small I don't care how long you've been following and there's just a small part of you that thinks who's gonna take care of me then who's gonna make sure I get what I deserve listen brother you don't want what you deserve I said two weeks ago this banner overs what about me who's gonna take care of me what about mine who's gonna take care of what I need what I what about my desires my dreams my hopes well the bible st. if you want those things lay them all down and pursue obedience to the Lord that life is found in losing your life not in seeking to find your life and then in other texts the reciprocity is true you want to hang on to your life you will lose it see there's great freedom that comes and losing our life and we gain far more than we ever lose so hear me say this it'll become important it's already important it's important for us to really get at a deep level following Jesus Christ involves sacrifice and involves a picking up the cross and following after everyone in this room who is following Jesus Christ has laid certain desires and wants down to pursue a greater desire we have laid treasures down to get the greater treasure we have laid once down to pursue the greater want there is sacrifice and cross bearing involved in following Jesus Christ because the fullness of life is found in losing your life this is how Grace has made visible think about strange this is in our culture I think about odd it would be to go don't worry about me how are you don't don't worry about me what's going on over here hey can I think about like if you could just make it tangible think about how the changes in your marriage if the default posture of your heart was death to self and the exaltation encouragement and applause of your other I mean think of the dynamic shifts in your relationship with spouse friends how you see Church think about how everything begins to change if you can die to yourself you're nearly impossible to offend if you've died to yourself you they sell so many things personally if you've died to yourself because most times they're not personal it's your insecurities talking see freedom is found in death to self but listen can't you feel it in you right now you even right now can't you feel like no sir that can't be right now you don't know my wife you're crazy you just gave her all sorts of ammunition bro it's Father's Day man you should have should have inverted that illustration man life is found full life is found in dying herself so grace is made visible according to the prophet Isaiah preaching to the people of God when the people of God walk in humility when the people of God began to be moved into action by the overwhelmed the oppressed and the enslaved and when the people of God died to themselves so if I could just kind of you know distill all of that down into a single statement grace is made visible when the people of God live with an open-handed generosity where they see all that they have and all their abilities and all of their time as being owned by their creator and given to them to simply steward for the glory of his name that's how grace is made visible so how do we reflect the beauty of God to the world around us how do we show that grace is not just something we could define but something that's in our guts we live with open handed generosity we see all that we have and all that we are has being given to us by our Creator to be stewarded for the glory of his name that's how grace is made visible and the more that is not true about us the more the grace is not being made visible something else is being made visible something unfortunately that often times we as religious people think is lovely and instead it's enslaving and exhausting like if I'm straight there I have run across nothing that is more exhausting than frenetic religious active that is detached from the vitality and energy found in Jesus Christ you hide your sin you go underground you live in constant guilt you have to constantly put up masks you're hiding lies hiding secrets burrowing down into yourself not fully known by anyone completely enslaving yourself to what frenetic religious activity it's being closed in the desert to the sweetest water possible and not taking a drink in CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia in the books the Silver Chair tells the story of a young girl in in the Willers just dying of thirst and there's Aslan as a lion and and there's this river behind her behind Aslan flowing with water and she wants a drink so badly and Aslan's bidding her to come drink come and drink but she's afraid of him so she won't come and so finally she just gives up and says you know I'll find another river and Athlon says where there is no other river this is so many of us so many of us and so when grace is made visible when it's in our gut we are walking in humility these things are taking place let's look at God's response to that look at verse 8 then shall your light break forth like the dawn so I want to stop there your light breaking forth like the dawn it's talking about how we reflect the beauty and grace of God to the world around us so the light breaking forth it like the dawn is is speaking of how we reflect the beauty of God to the world around us so when Christians have been moved by grace to extend grace when Christians who were helpless and were helped by God find their lives being poured out to help others the light of Christ is seen and acknowledged in the world the New Testament would call us salt and light that's how he would unpack this idea our light breaks forth like the dawn then I love this next line and your healing shall spring up speedily now let's let's talk about healing this text certainly and we know from life experience and from other places in the Bible that this text doesn't mean that if you live a grace saturated life that you don't get sick and that you don't die of diseases and you don't I don't think that's what's happening here I think what you're getting a picture of is the nature and character of God in his fervent pursuit of the deepest hurts and wounds in our heart I did a funeral yesterday morning the the man who I did it you know a long time covenant member here just a beautiful last seven years of his life when he was 11 years old he was playing this this moment marked him when he was 11 years old he was playing with his 14 year old brother they had black powder muskets and they were playing around with the black powder muskets and the man I did his funeral yesterday fired the weapon and there was something in the the barrel that struck his 14 or brother and killed him the parents response to this god bless him I have I mean I can only imagine what what happens in that moment was to have this man leave to clean up the mess and to never bring up the brother again and so this man lived the majority of his life fearful broken unable to connect relationally and in any way emotionally rekt his first marriage his relationship with many of his kids was really damaged with all of this hurting him he was acting in a way that was sinful that was flowing out of this deep deep wound and then about seven years ago eight years ago he sat down with a biblical counselor just a couple of blocks from here and began to walk through what he remembered because he didn't remember much of what had occurred he had to put it together after this initial confession began to walk through this is what I remember this is what happened this is how its led to these things in my life and at some point the the biblical counselor shut his Bible he got up from his chair and he walked over and he sat next to this man he held him and the two just wept together for 30 minutes and on that count just a couple of blocks from here that man's healing sprung forth speedily and the way he operated for the last eight years of his life was completely different than how he operated the first 60 some-odd years of his life and what this grace saturated living has God getting to the deepest darkest wounds possible and beginning to heal them that the Lord's desire in His grace is not just to make us pretty externally he wants the deep parts of the soul in fact what no one ever told me before I came a Christian was how diligent Christ would pursue those deep wounds how he wasn't gonna let him go how he was gonna come after him that it wasn't enough for me to not just cuss and get drunk and chase women that he wanted something else out of my hearts those deep wounds from which all these other behaviors sprung up he wanted those two and he came after him and that's what grace does and what God is saying here is when we walk in that grace you'll show out my glory by pushing back what is dark and I'm coming after those wounds and it's going to be slower than you want it to be and it's gonna be more painful than you can imagine but I'm gonna heal those broken spaces but you got to open up let me in you got to walk and those ongoing reps of confession or repents you've got to understand that those behaviors that haunt you have a route that somewhere down there I've said it before we don't mow over weeds they grow too quick we pull them up by the root and then from there I've got to hurry up here this sermons gonna get really long your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard now what we know this isn't saying is that by doing these activities you become righteous that's absurd we know that we can't become righteous by doing activity that Christ and Christ alone calls us righteous by imputing his righteousness to us so we have no righteousness of our own that can be accomplished via works no and so what this text is talking about is the surrounding nature of the grace of God he goes before us and his glory is our rearguard that we are surrounded by the grace of God here's why that's such good news I can think back on the last 22 years of following the Lord and I can think of a handful of days where I thought I nailed it anyone else like I went to bed at night and I was like nailed it got up this morning spent time in word share the gospel like three people today guarded my thoughts walked in integrity with all I know treated my wife the way the Lord would have me treat my wife treated my kids the way the Lord would have me went to bed proud of myself thank you Lord for strengthening me and sustaining me but if I'm straight those those are a handful of days most days I've gone to bed at night and thought dang it we'll get him tomorrow mercies are new in the morning remember and here's why I love this idea being surrounded by grace because on the day that I nailed it he took those filthy rags of my own righteousness and called him righteous because of Jesus and on those days that I did my best with all the Holy Spirit's power to be completely obedient and fell woefully short he was right there and called me righteous so let him be in front of me as my righteousness and let his glory be my rearguard it means wherever I go there he is good days are bad there he is unmoved unwavering ferociously committed to me because of Christ praise God and then here's the the second thing I want you to see not not only do you see that that God blesses us when when our lives are saturated by grace but then look at this next one and then I'll show you what we get what we don't get verse 9 then you shall call and the Lord will answer you shall cry and he will say what does he say Here I am now it's time to talk lest you think we've kind of drifted into some sort of prosperity gospel moment where you can control God with your behavior let me tell you some things I cannot promise you I cannot promise you promise you that by submitting your life to the Lord and following after him everything's gonna go the way you want it I cannot promise you good marriages I cannot promise you health and long life I cannot promise you a full bank account I cannot promise you that you will not wrestle I cannot promise you that you will not have to fight your flesh as long as you breathe air I cannot promise you that your children will grow up and love little I cannot promise you any of those things I can promise you simply what God promises you here that when you cry out you will hear hear I so over and over and over again I've tried to make this one thing clear the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that by following we get what we want we gosh you don't what most of what you want and if God were to give them to you be cruel of him the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is regardless of our circumstances we get God and he'll be enough that on the day of trouble we cry out and we will hear hear I am when marriage is difficult and we cry out we will hear hear I am on the day that the doctor says can you come in we need to talk we will hear as we cry out to God Here I am he will not abandon he will not quit and he will not cut out his children he is ever present ever chasing ever hoping ever putting his Holy Spirit's power into us to sustain us and hold us up regardless of life's circumstances this is how he blesses those who are saturated in grace he is present he is enough we get the one thing we need over and above the things that we want and that are even good to desire health isn't a bad thing to desire long life is not a bad thing to desire a great marriage is not a bad thing to desire or pursue pursue all of them but it is God who sends the storm when his children need the storm and it is God who holds them fast in the middle of it and he will quiet the waves when it's time to quiet the waves there's a mystery in there I know I've been there before I was like all right I got I learned I've got I heard you oh really you can still make the wind blow a little bit huh and this is where we trust him as we hear him say here I am now from here the the text just repeats but it's a bit more poetic so let's pick it up after here I am if you take away the yoke from your midst the pointing of the finger and the speaking wickedness if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as noonday and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire and scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered garden like a spring of water whose waters do not fail and your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations and you shall be called the repairer of the breach the restorer of streets to dwell in if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth yes please I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken so let me land our time to get today simply with this one of the dangers of Isaiah 58 is for you to read through this text and go okay let me engage the oppressed and the needy let me take care of the thirsty and the starving let me spend my life on the overwhelm let me work on these things let me do these things and yet the Prophet ends this sermon like this turn your foot back to the Sabbath now what's the Sabbath generosity is not achieved via a bunch of frenzied activity generosity is birthed in the quietness of heart that has learned to rest in God regardless of circumstances there is a rest that is found in him when we slow our selves down to here meditate upon and believe that what he has said about us is true that we our his that he is ours and that he is unwavering in his commitment to us as his children that's Sabbath that's not vacation that's not a day off Sabbath is that spot where we stop doing and rest in who he says we are generosity burst forth out of that ground not out of the ground that goes well let me you know pare down my budget so I have money to give away we'll get to that but motivations matter the Bible is clear that we should never give away or be generous but grudgingly or under compulsion it's an interesting note that what drives Christian action it is not just the commands to Christian action but rather a heart that's been deeply transformed by what God has said about us that we are forgiven that we are loved that we are delighted in oh that you might slow down a bit that you might quietly consider I'm no fool some of you are exhausted in this place today so busy trying to earn something that's already been paid for look at me you don't have a mortgage payment in glory that house has been paid for so I don't know what you're trying to work towards I'm not saying that Christian activity doesn't matter it matters a ton but it needs to be birthed out of resting and who God says that we are let's pray father we want to be generous people we want to operate an open-handed generosity scene all that we have and all that we are as gifts from you to be steward it for the glory of your name and that starts with being able to rest in you and so pray father in this moment for my brothers and sisters that are just exhausted pray they'd be able to rest in you in this moment that even in this moment father you would allow the Holy Spirit just to breathe peace onto their hearts that the weight of trying to earn would melt off that the worry of trying to obtain would vanish and in its place would be the peaceful confidence that comes from knowing that you are for us and not against us and the cross of Christ is all the evidence we need regardless of any life experience regardless of any other situation or scenario we find ourselves in the cross beckons us as a beacon to consider your goodness and grace and so let us rest in that today let us not put our hope in a vacation that's coming up or a day off that's coming up but let us find our rest in you let us turn back our feet from simply doing for the sake of doing and turn it back into moving towards you to rest and you to quiet our hearts before you and to be ministered to deeply by you help us father it's for your beautiful name I pray amen if you're going to serve communion this morning will you go ahead and head to those elements and begin to pass those out just a few words we end our service every weekend with the Lord's Supper the lord's table communion and we do that because regardless of what we talk about in here we always have to get back to this moment this moment where we celebrate the broken body and shed blood of jesus christ and so a couple of things if you are a believer in Christ in good standing with the church you are visiting us from good standing just simply means that you haven't been kicked out of that church or put under discipline or anything like that please feel free to celebrate the Lord's Supper with us we are brothers and sisters in Christ we have been bought and and brought into the same family but here's what I'd like to ask if you are not a believer in Christ not quite sure what to do with all of this don't know what you think about all this will you just abstain we're not trying to judge you or or do something that makes you feel out of sorts or out of place here we're simply celebrating something that at this point in time is not true about you although we have earnestly prayed that it would soon be true of you so if you grab the cracker and if you grab the cup the only thing that will happen is what biologically happens when you eat a small Easter cracker and drink a tiny cup of juice this will not make you lucky it will not forgive your sins it will not make you and God cool and to partake in what is not yours but the Bible actually warns against says that some have fallen asleep for coming to this table in a way that God marked as unworthy doesn't mean we come to the table perfect in fact the very point of the table is it's for imperfect people who gladly submit their life to the Lord and so I'm gonna pray for us and I would encourage you in light of the things that we've covered this morning - maybe just slow down a bit - consider to ask the Lord to alleviate your anxieties and stresses and then at the right time that you might remember the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ and then we're gonna sing to the Lord and about the Lord I'm gonna ask the Lord to move stuff that's in our head down into our hearts and guts we might believe what we believe what we believe father thank you you're good and gracious and beautiful you are the good father we thank you for how you love us so well it's for your beautiful name Amen love you guys more than I can express

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 47,718

Rating: 4.8347826 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Grace, Grace Made Visible

Id: 6xYttipCuXM

Length: 54min 16sec (3256 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 29 2014