I Am (Part 3) | The Light of the World - Matt Chandler

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 I am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of Life well good morning how are we doing well hey a catholic saint was beheaded a long time ago so happy valentine's day on that one make sure you celebrate deeply today if you have your bibles that's just absurd like why would i start the service that way if you have your bibles go ahead and grab those john chapter 8 is where we're gonna be if you don't have a Bible with you want to encourage you there should be a black hardback one somewhere around you when you grab that if you don't own one that's our gift to you if you're not familiar with the Bible how it works I've got the page number on the screen and then just for your reference big numbers or chapters little numbers are verses so if you don't know I'm just glad that you're here and we're gonna let the word of god press into us today and it's gonna be a really cool thing while you're turning there I wanted to do a little village church family business so if you're a guest with us you'll just get to kind of sit in on a little family meeting we are six weeks you know well maybe I should do it this way about a year ago we began to get a sense that that our my life in particulars Lauren and I having a conversation that that my life in particular was getting a bit out of control in regards to kind of reaching the end of my bandwidth and so I pastor the village church is my primary love what I feel most called to but I I've been the president of acts 29 which is the church planning organization with 600 churches on six continents but I've written some books then I get to travel and speak at these other places and and we just began to feel that man I was starting to hit my bandwidth I don't know if you've had that moment where you're like okay I can't do anymore I'm done here but I was beginning to feel that and so in a conversation that Lauren and I had we just decided that we were gonna use my sabbatical to hit the hard reset button and we cleared my fall we kept my spring and winter but we cleared my fall outside of one trip to Nashville where I um I literally hopped on a plane at six o'clock got to Nashville around 8:30 9:00 I spoke at 9 a.m. just drove from the venue to the airport got back on a plane and was home in Dallas by four and then that was it if I missed a weekend in the fall it was because I was being disappointed with my son down at am watching them try to win at football and so we're out just kind of being a family and doing family things so after my first week of sabbatical I just went yeah yeah this is what I want to do I want to shrink my circles I want to just kind of push all my chips in at the village and in this community and be a part of this thing with all of my energy and not just some of my energy and so I wrote I wrote and contacted everyone who had me under contract and I'm not under any contract or writing more books in fact I've told everybody I'll deliver my next book right after Nora graduates from high school she's six so that created some space for me and and then just said to them I would like out of these contracts this is what I feel the Lord's calling me into and the season he's calling me into and so I wrote that many of them wrote back and said praise god bless you brother serve the local congregation it's what you've been called to and many others wrote and said we've already advertised people have always signed up sounds awesome we'll see you there and so I say all that because I've been out three of the the first six weekends of the village church so there's two things I want to say about that the first is that that my heart is here right that my I'm and I've told you you don't have to worry about pastor Matt looking for an I like I am and thirteen years have lived here long and I've lived anywhere in my life my family's here Laurens family's here we are village persons I'm not going there right and so I want a Judy here for me that I'm in and then because I heard just a little bit of nonsense and and bye nonsense I don't mean where's Chandler he's not committed because I I mean okay I'm saying like people were like hey man I heard you're not preaching because you've been having really bad headaches I haven't my head's awesome mmm I can't remember the last time I had a headache but with my medical history I mean people just fill in the gaps well Chandler's been out three weeks he's sick again no I'm not I feel awesome I feel awesome and so and then the second thing I really wanted to push across is that even though I am ferociously committed and I will always be the primary preaching pastor at this place it is a good right healthy thing for you to hear other men passionately and ferociously preach the Word of God to you because it is what's central and it is what we are built upon not any one man's giftedness and so I like that we like each other I mean it's Valentine's Day I'm digging this right this isn't a crush we're 13 years and I love that and yet I'm excited about the day where you get excited about other gifted godly men preaching the Bible to you in a way that's tangible for them to feel because we're not putting anybody up here that it can't and is it very gifted at preaching the Word of God to you like a fiends eeeh fat and anymore Jamin Roller last week who that that kid I mean he looks 12 but the guy can go right and and so ultimately I want you to get just as excited about hearing other men preach the Word of God as you do when I get the opportunity to be with you because when all said and done what were built on had better not be the giftedness of any one or two three people all right that will not sustain you in the day of trouble so with with that said we are in it's my turn to preach so with that said let's go Matt's here Tony let's go I don't don't do that don't okay so John chapter 8 is where we are we're in week 3 of the I am series and so all we're doing is we're walking through the Gospel of John and and the idea behind all of it is that if we turn our eyes onto Jesus if we look at Jesus and consider Jesus not just what Jesus has done but who he is if we look at who Jesus is the Bible says that that has a transforming effect on us as people that our lives are transformed not just by knowing what Jesus has done but by knowing seeing understanding who he is and we taught that week one where the Bible says that we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are transformed from one degree of glory to the next or the way we're transformed is by beholding the glory of Jesus since we said that in week one we looked at Jesus as the savior of the world and then last week Jamin Roller talked about Jesus as the bread of life and then that takes us to this week's texts which is Jesus is the light of the world and so let's look at this text together John chapter 8 we're gonna start in verse 12 and if you'll oblige me will you stand as we read the Word of God this doesn't mean it magically think it we're just honoring that God wants to communicate with his people has desired to communicate with his people and has communicated with his people John chapter 8 starting in verse 12 the Word of God says this again Jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of Life so the Pharisees said to him you are bearing witness about yourself your testimony is not true things just got awkward jesus answered even if I do bear witness about myself my testimony is true for I know where I came from and where I am going but you do not know where I come from or where I am going may God bless the reading of his word you can have a seat and so this is again if we're reading the Bible with imagination that this is a really awkward moment so Jesus is sitting down in the temple and he is teaching and there's a crowd there and it is teaching he says I am the light of the world and someone speaks up in the crowd right someone says you're trying to testify about yourself and you're a liar like that's an awkward right like that's no he did not say that to Jesus and so Jesus says what if I am what if I am testifying about myself say I know where I come from and I know where I'm going you don't know where I come from and you don't know where I'm going so how would you know if I'm lying or not now what is something's going on here the like why are they so offended by this statement I mean listen you're pretty offended like I might say some things in here the quasi offends you today like you're like uh I can't believe he believes that what an ignorant and just kind of walk out going oh that guy's immoral and and I can live with that right but it would be a special kind of offense I think to make you stand up here and go you ridiculous liar and it's gonna get really awkward as security drags you out it's just gonna be a bad deal today on Valentine's Day we don't want that right it's hearts and candies a guy had his head cut off we're celebrating that today let's just breathe in that and yet in the middle of this teaching this guy says you're testifying about yourself and what you say is not true so what's really happening in this kind of weird dialogue and then Jesus's response if I know where I come from and I know where I'm going but you don't know either okay so the idea of light in the imagery of light for Hebrew in the first century particularly an expert in the law would have massive connotations and so maybe the best way to kind of unpack what Jesus is saying is to think just briefly I don't have to turn then we'll just think just briefly about Genesis one and and here's what happens in Genesis 1 the Bible says that the state of the universe looks like this it is formless it is dark and it is void it is formless it is dark and it is void and then in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters and God says let there be what light let there be light so it's formless it's dark and it's void and the god of the universe says let there be light and from that sentence structure began to replace formlessness what was formless was being formed and darkness was put on its heels and what was void began to be filled with life and in this process of what is formless being formed what is dark being put on its heels and what is void being filled with life is the way God begins to interact with his creation particularly men and women moving forward so much as this imagery of light about forming and pushing back darkness and filling with life that even the prophet Isaiah when he's talking about the coming of Jesus in Isaiah chapter 9 you remember there's kind of a Christmas verse for most people but the verse reads the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them a light has shone so when Jesus says I am the light of the world Jesus is making some claims that are unacceptable for those who are moral Alysse those who have built their worth on the ability to checkboxes you tracking with me like like the people who just feel because of their behavior they are better than this is a massive threat to their existence because Jesus just said I am God and so when he says you can say that my testimony assault but I know where I come from now what's he talking about he was there he is the Word made flesh so that when God says let there be light who's the active force of creation Jesus he's like I know where I come from and I know where I'm going right where's that revelation 21 and on that day that will no longer need the Sun nor the moon for the glory of God will be there light that there's a day coming in in the new heavens and new earth where there's no Sun no moon you don't mean that because the glory of God is like that the seen Christ face-to-face will illuminate in a way that's better than the way the Sun illuminates now won't need anything to reflect light because the light will be in our midst this is Jesus's rebuttal to their your test you're a liar well how do you know if I'm a liar I know where I've come from and I know where I'm going you don't you don't know where I've come and you don't know where we're going so Jesus is claiming it's a bold claim that I alone take what is formless and form it I alone put darkness on its heels and I alone fill voids with life and so that's my outline right there you go I never do that that's my outline so that that's it formalist ooh formed dark to light and then void to full so if you're type-a that's just my little Valentine's gift to you right okay so let's start formless to form we had in in my house a little yellow booklet that I used to use with Audrey it was edited by Sinclair Ferguson it was basically the Westminster Shorter Catechism condensed and made helpful to use with your children and basically the Westminster Shorter Catechism is a tool that the church is used for a long time to help intellectually shape our understanding of God if you were here when we walked through the Apostles Creed it's just a more robust way for spiritual formation to occur and the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is a great question a question that everyone's trying to answer and here's the question what is the chief end of man if I could put that in more common language why are we here why do we exist what is this all about well the Catechism gives the answer and here's the answer that the Westminster Shorter Catechism gives the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever so the purpose of your life the purpose of my life is to glorify God by enjoy him forever now my friend John Piper is the one that added that word by right so the the confession says that man's chief in is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever John tweaked the words don't panic you can do that it's a catechism it's not the Bible now if John's tweaking words in the Bible we got a problem but that's not what he's done here he said no no a better a more true faithful biblical exposition of this answer would be that we would bring glory to God by enjoying him forever not and enjoy him forever but rather we're gonna glorify God by enjoying him now how amazing is that for a purpose what's your ultimate purpose to enjoy God well how do you do that by glorifying him how do you do that by rightly living and ordering my life around his commands that are all meant to lead me into the fullest life possible so that we're Christians we're not crusty prudes in a real sense we're hedonists chasing after deeper joys greater pleasures now you are a whole person so so there's a real mysterious kind of thing whether it's psychology or philosophy or theology there's all this argument about this here's here's what we're almost all gonna agree upon you you have at the center of who you are a soul psychology is not gonna give you souls spirit mind they're gonna be somewhere in there but you have a soul that soul is eternal and yet attached to that soul are these other really massive things like your intellect right your intellect doesn't stand alone it's attached to your soul your physical body isn't on its own it's attached to the soul which is why you can wound the body and in effect the soul and you have emotions you feel whether you want to call that the heart or whatever that again this is argued about ad nauseam I don't wanna fight today it's Valentine's Day I'm just saying that you are a whole person and that there's a type of integration of the Lord is after and so when we say that the chief end of man the reason that we exist the reason that we're physical and intellectual and the reason we have a heart the reason this spirit kind of pulls them all in like a tractor beam is that our chief end is realized by us being holistic people and and here's how it works you know according to the Bible the mind informs the heart and sometimes they fight with each other all right sometimes the heart wrestles with the mind and the mind wrestles with the heart and the body's kind of long for the rites so the mind informs the heart that fuels what we feel that navigate our physical functionality this is how we work it's why stress manifests itself in physical ways it's why anxiety creates a physical effect when anxiety is a feeling built around what you believe to be true worked out in your physical form so when we're talking about Jesus being the light of the world we're saying is a very bold true statement that outside of Jesus Christ outside of a relationship with Jesus okay not intellectual assent outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ member week one not knowing about knowing that we are way outside of what we were designed to be and are therefore not fulfilling what we were created to fulfill and therefore in a very real sense are unmade unformed and yet when we come into Christ the light of the world he begins to form us if you've got a background in church the language Christians use it for this is sanctification that we are being formed we are being sanctified and just for a quick moment of honesty how many of you Christians were like now I hate the pace of this formation thing it's moving a little slow so let me try to encourage you when when when we talk about spiritual birth it's it's helpful to think about physical birth like you didn't come out of the womb ready to do push-ups you came out 99% cartilage with a hole in the top of your head that have you pressed on it would mean bad things right so you're mainly cartilage and over a period of time you began to be able to feed yourself you began to be able to crawl you began to be able to walk you began to be able to run and and it's slower and and yet this is how the Lord grows us to it's slower than we'd like but we are being formed if you are a Christian in your highs and in your lows you are being formed and so we can despise how long it takes but just be glad in knowing that you are being formed but that's not all that we see happening here in formlessness to form and Jesus says he's the light of the world we also see dark to light the Bible is gonna say this the outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ that we are in what's called in the scriptures the domain of darkness when we become Christians the Colossians says that were transferred out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son that it's in this moment that were moved out of darkness and in to light so that if you're not a Christian the Bible's going to say that you walk in a type of spiritual blindness that you just simply can't see what is ultimate reality you can see some things but not what is ultimate you can feel some things but not what is ultimate this is called the domain of darkness it's trying to navigate life without knowing what is ultimate reality you can run and run and run but who knows if you're heading in the right direction my daddy was maybe then retired and then him and my mom or long-haul truck drivers so we never had a lot of money in fact my whole life whitewalls overhead lights anybody else straggling white walls overhead lights I'm married a woman that that is not how they do things their color and lamps and so it took me a long time to respect having to walk through a dark room past a switch to turn on the light many a stubbed toes dislocated toes hit knees and repentance for words shouted the first couple years of marriage as I tried to navigate did this new way of nesting we'll call it she's in here so I got to be careful it's Valentine's Day and and so when you're walking in darkness even when you think you know where things are you don't necessarily know where things are this is our spiritual state outside of Christ and yet when Jesus says I am the light of the world he's talking about illumination he's talking about illumination see the the the Bible tells us that when the Holy Spirit awakens our heart to the reality of Jesus Christ this integration piece that we started talking about earlier it starts to actually happen that the scriptures open to us and we can understand them in a way that we couldn't understand it before we became Christians and now we read them now with our mind in formed by truth our heart begins to be shaved and then that then fuels some of our emotion so we're free now to worship not coldly and intellectually alone but really feel stirred in our affections for the God of the Bible because he has done these things because our mind believes and has informed the heart that is now fueled our response to what God has done this is the work of light now I want to take advantage of this darkness to light thing to have a conversation about some of the aspects that are scary about God awesome but scary you want to talk scary stuff about God I mean it doesn't matter how you answer that because it's the next part of my notes but but let's talk about that nothing so I want you to think about this for a second it should create a little bit of nervousness in you nothing is hidden from God you have no secrets none so here's a little there's a fun exercise I play with myself and I've oftentimes played with you if you're feeling cocky spiritually and I mean you know no one's even gonna admit that they feel that right but like if you're in the place where you like you know people should just watch how I'm doing this I'm gonna take some notes you know you find yourself saying this a lot you know what I do is when nobody even asked you what you do like like here's a fun game to play would you still be confident in that swagger if we took all the thoughts that you've had this week and put it on the screen and we all got to watch it as a movie today so just hey I'll give this to you not even the last week last 48 hours we just take all your thoughts all your doubts all your lusts all your things that you wanted to say but didn't and we just watched them you gonna stay and watch your own movie first of all I don't think you would stay and and secondly if you did that swagger would fade in a hurry there is nothing hidden from God ever you have no secrets not in your mind not in your heart not in your activities so that feeling of getting away with something I'm trying to love you enough to say you're not getting away with anything David says it like this some 139 11 through 12 if I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the day for darkness is as light with you so if your idea is that you can wait till 2:00 in the morning dressed like a ninja and and God's not gonna see what you're doing I'm telling you there's no place to hide and you cannot camouflage yourself from God even being here today is ineffective camouflage you can't huh if you're hunter sir there's nothing you can spray on you or put on your position you can get in that hides you from his ability to see you have no secrets it's a myth um last weekend was my daughter's 13th birthday so I was out what I'm gonna miss that with her we had a blast and I wrote her a letter on Thursday night I won't read that letter to you but I will read this sentence that I wrote to her and and here's the sentence that I wrote in her letter secrets are the darkness in which death and destruction grow secrets are the darkness in which death and destruction grow so if you're not a Christian my expectation is that you're walking and what the Bible would call your flesh right you're outside of Christ you're doing what seems right to you but but if I could take this moment and talk to Christians specifically there's this really kind of heinous lie that Christians believe that because we're Christians we should be on be past a certain point you shouldn't struggle it some of the things we're struggling and when you believe that you you're you're drawn into secrecy in ways that let the hooks of death and destruction get into you and so I'm telling you this is 20 years of pastoral ministry pleading with you right now so what happens is let me give real-life examples you you are a housewife who's gotten herself addicted to prescription pills and you feel guilty and you feel ashamed you feel controlled you keep swearing you're not gonna do it but you keep falling back into it and gosh you can't tell anybody what's your husband going to think what are the people in your small group gonna think oh my gosh what about the ladies that you do yoga with I mean they know you're a Christian they know that you're a religious type what are they gonna do when they find this out so what you do is you you say that's too risky I can't share that with anybody and so you retreat into the shadows you don't take the off-ramp of confession you hide well darkness becomes the place that those hooks of death and destruction set deeper or you're a man and you're flirting with some girl at work or you're a woman at home just perusing Facebook when you come across that ex-boyfriend you begin to remember all the fun things that he did for you of course not that seven times he cheated on you which is why you broke up with them but you just kind of over romanticized the past and your mind space and your gladness is no longer towards your husband but towards this other man and you you can feel a tension you can feel a tinge of this is wrong and then instead of taking the off-ramp of confession and said we retreat into the darkness and as we retreat into the darkness hooks sink deeper and the fear of if I confess this I could lose my marriage if I confess this I could lose my job if I could confess this people are gonna look at me funny forces us into the darkness and by going into the darkness the hooks of death and destruction set and here's what happens here's why it's so heartbreaking and then it costs you your marriage and then it cost you your job and then in the mercy of God when you get outed people look at you in a strange way and so King David riding about this King David's an expert on this as a murdering adulterer who tries to hide it says this Psalm 32:1 through five blessed happy glad is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered we can believe that right nobody wants to argue with that happy glad joyful is the man who understands that sin has been forgiven and his sins have been covered blessed happy glad is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit so deceit in this verse does not mean that he's not guilty of anything but rather he has nothing to hide watch what happens here is where science thinks it's discovered something recently that the Bible's been teaching since it was written verse 3 for when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer or in our case maybe in the heat of winter Sayla verse 5 I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity I said I will confess transgression to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin David saying when I'm in the dark when I'm living a duplicitous life when I have chosen not the embarrassment of confession but the kind of self determined willpower to overcome in the darkness projecting an ideal self projecting a better version of me that's reality and bearing the weight of that I I instead I'm in the I'm not gonna just take the easy way out this is a conversation I have with my children all the time so I can't tell you how often with with both of my older two I don't think I've had this conversation yet with sweet Nora but where I've sat down said this is a really big moment for you so I'm asking you about this and here's what you're gonna get to do you're gonna get to choose to be honest with me and then learn that your mom's love and my love is not predicated upon your behavior and if you're like do you use the word predicated probably not right not means 10 probably not right but Oh or I'll say or you can choose to lie to me and if you lie to me buddy listen I'm trying to plead with you if you lie to me you're choosing to not just bear the weight of one life but to bear the weight of two and nobody's been designed to bear the weight of two lives because if you lie here what you're doing is you're gonna now provide all your energy all your vitality and all your gladness into two pieces the ideal self that you want to project to everybody and the real you that God wants to forgive and work in so did you do it buddy right I mean you asked that question after that speech because I don't want my kids to allow the hooks of the enemy to set deeply in them and so even these little dialogues where they choose to walk into see they're choosing to do what most of us know is crushing to project one thing while being another and when Jesus says I am the light of the world he's saying I'm gonna put that nonsense on its heels so I could point to the cross so often with you guys like Jesus already outed you this kind of ideal self nonsense where you don't struggle you're not worried you know that like these already out at you you're broken you need help I've got help for you I'm gonna shine light in the darkness right darkness does not overcome light you've never opened up your door at night and had darkness flow into your house you've opened up your door and light shone out of it this is what Jesus does like we see it in this first and by the way if this is you right now and you've got secret unconfessed sin I'm not just talking about general struggles I'm saying your life is marked by a consistent cycle of being sucked into the same thing over and over again and you hate it but but you don't want anybody to know about it so you keep trying with self-determined will to handle it yourself and you've gotten nowhere and it's been five years eight years 10 years 15 years 20 years and you just keep thinking you're gonna figure it out look what happens in John 8 starting in verse 2 early in the morning Jesus came again to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them and the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst of this crowd they said to Jesus teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman so what do you say they this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground and they continued to ask he stood up and said to them let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her and once more he bent down and wrote on the ground don't you kind of want to know what he wrote on the ground I do too I have no idea and the Bible doesn't tell us so conjectures conjecture so he's writing again on the ground and look what happens and when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones why because older men have a portfolio of failures and younger men are experts huh well I'm just telling you if you're in your 20s you think you're smarter than you are and when you're in your 50s you know that you've learned some lessons the hard way and it should temper you as you get older and so that's why it's the older men they're like dang it so here's this woman she's been caught in the act of adultery praise God for the wickedness of the Pharisees or this woman would have been stoned they wanted Jesus so they dragged this woman to Jesus the law they have clear means by the law to help this woman with rocks until she does so they bring her caught in her shame she did not confess she's busted outed in her sin they dragged her in front of Jesus my guess Bibles over here my guess is she's on the ground kind of covered up waiting for the first rock to hit her hoping that maybe it's a headshot that knocks her out so she doesn't feel the rest of it listening to this dialogue Jesus says let the one of you who's with out sin throw the first stone and then thudd thudd thudd thudd the rocks fall to the ground Jesus walks over to her and picks up her head and looks at her eyes and says where are they has no one condemned you well neither do I go and sin no more it reminds me this story reminds me of John 3:17 for Christ let's come into a world not to condemn the world or rather to save the world from condemnation I want to point out that this woman in a overwhelmed sense of guilt and shame to not confess her since she was caught in the act the Scriptures clear that she's caught in the act of adultery so she didn't commit adultery go home feel sick to her stomach and call her priest the next morning I feel terrible I want to make some penance that's not what happens she gets busted in the act and so those who don't even come clean of their own volition are extended grace by Jesus this is a stunning mercy that God gives us in Christ he is the light of the world he puts darkness on its heels he puts darkness on its heels brother sister if you are walking in secret unconfessed sin it ends one of three ways with you taking the off-ramp of confession I'm not promising you that it won't be costly I'm not promising you it won't be painful I will assure you it's embarrassing that's the off-ramp that God gives you to spare you from the hooks of death and destruction or in his mercy he will out you this happens all the time in fact just to encourage the Saints if you're in here you're a Christian and you were living a duplicitous life for an extended season and got busted and you're saying you didn't come clean you got busted in your sin would you raise your hand okay so you look around I mean this is this is us gaggle of morons and we got bust and then here's the third way and I think the third way is the hardest in God's wrath he will simply turn you over to your sin to be destroyed by it now this is there's a frightful thing because you will get the sense that you're getting away with something when in reality God has just in his wrath turned you over that's what Romans 1 teaches that there comes this point where God just says you want that rather than what I have for you you want to walk in the darkness I'll just turn you over to darkness and and if you go read Romans 1:28 and following you see what begins to occur when God turns you over to darkness and it is a type of moral disintegration where you go way farther than you ever thought you were capable of going you go way farther than you ever thought you were capable of going Jesus is the light of the world he puts darkness on its heels and then lastly he takes what is void and he fills it with life John 10:10 says this the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy but I came that they might have life and have it abundantly there what Jesus is after for you and for me is abundant life now this is true I think we'll all agree upon this you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy the good graces of common grace here's what I mean you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy a really good meal right like you can just be a God hating pagan and love steak and a good bottle of wine or chicken nuggets I don't know what your thing is right you do not have to be a Christian to love a vacation at the beach or mountains depending on where you are on that continuum you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy physical intimacy with another human being none of those things require you to be a Christian but here's where I would argue that in order to experience the full of any of those things you must be a Christian you can have a good marriage you can enjoy a good meal you have a good vacation you can enjoy a certain level of intimacy but outside of Jesus Christ because we are formless and not formed to fulfill what we were created to do to bring glory to God by enjoying him forever you will always hit a low ceiling and never be able to realize the full extent of joy available in any and all of those acts so for the Christian rooted in the Word of God informed in his mind ministering to his heart informing his ministry shaping his body a great steak and a bottle of wine leads to worship of something greater that's not even on the table for an unbeliever it's like dang this is a good steak and Men what kind of cab is this but for the believer how generous is God not only that he provided this but that he thought it up I mean if you don't think God is about in a real sense enjoying who he is why give things different flavors and why like why do that because you want to be glorified in our enjoyment of your creative brilliance it's an awesome truth and listen maybe you're an unbelieving like that's just categorically untrue well I've got a lost guy that wants to argue with you know I'm a Christian so I'll let a lost guy argue with you last weekend was the Super Bowl is a great game I didn't care if you're a Carolina fan all right I mean I have found myself personally just nervous that ball Miller's gonna fly out of somewhere and knock me down right I mean just be smote no answer for that man machine Aggie thing I had I just threw that in anyway a player that was not in that game but is a prolific player in the NFL was interviewed by 60 minutes a few years ago and here's what he had to say this is Tom Brady why do I have three Super Bowl rings now we know this is data because he has four Super Bowl rings now right why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there is something greater out there for me I mean maybe a lot of people would say hey man this is what it is I reached my goal my dream my life but me I think God it's got to be more than this I mean this isn't this can't be what it's all cracked up to be Tom Brady okay so there's this time we do this exercise where I have you say I am NOT God so we're gonna do it except we're gonna put Tom in there now right I want you to say I am NOT Tom Brady say it now for the record you said that with more confidence than you usually do when I have you say I am NOT God I'll deal with that this week so let's think about Tom Brady six billion people on earth roughly probably more than that now of those you've got 10 quarterbacks in the NFL that are not journeyman type of turnover new spot every year of that tin you've got five that franchises up said we're gonna build the whole thing around you of that five to are three are in the discussion is one of the greatest of all times see the the quarterback position so hard to grade which is why the draft has produced so many flops it requires not just intellect but it requires a speedy level of processing that's kind of extremely like everybody thinks they can do it like when you're watching like oh come on brother please brother please and and so tom tom is gonna be in the discussion as one of the greatest if not the greatest quarterback of all time listen real talk he is wealthier than you he is better-looking than you hee hee is living out in many ways men in particular most of your fantasies they will build a statue of him outside of Gillette Stadium little boys right now are watching him play and they are being fueled up for their run the next great quarterbacks will talk about watching Tom Brady wins Super Bowls none of that is true about you like no one's going no twelve-year-old right now first of all let's just say that no one's building a statue of you outside of your workplace 10 years after you're going we just agree you might be salesman of the year bro but no one's building a statue of you outside of not only that but there's not a 12 year old right now he's gonna win award 15 years from now and it's like man I remember when I was 11 I watched such-and-such market and marketing and I just knew if I applied myself and I worked hard and I went to all these camps that I could mark it like this market or market it but that's not you no one's watching you do work on a global stage and go on that's incredible you're just being faithful where you are that lets go buddy here's where tom serves us he has the American Dream at his lap and here's what he says he's he's won three Super Bowls they they they did a documentary on the six quarterbacks they were drafted before him just to shame the other teams for not drafting Brady like here's this T Martin was drafted before Brady's now a high school coach in Georgia I mean it's like shaming team Martin because I'm like hey all these other guys are bums Tom Brady you should have saw it and so Tom who has it all three to four Super Bowl rings a part of the country that worships him like he's part of the Trinity Church Stadium where 70 80 thousand worshipers gather on the weekends and chant his name says god it's got to be more than this I mean this isn't this can't be what it's all cracked up to be Cleese yeah STIs 3:11 says that God has put eternity into the heart of man therefore only what is eternal can fill the gap of eternity which is why Brady for his four Super Bowl rings and his Victoria's Secret model wife says oh my god this can't be it because it's not it it's just gizelle and another seven Super Bowls are never gonna fill the gap of eternity they can't they're temporary and when Jesus says I am the light of the world he's saying I fill that void with life and in life plays itself out and it's ties all together that we get a new heart and then from that since we're walking not in duplicity but open and honest our relationships deepen and we begin to walk in community because not only have we been formed but we're walking in the light think of how much easier it is to be loved and have deep community if you're fully known but if you're hiding you can't even receive people's love because you think they love the projected image of you which actually just enslaves you farther and then lastly you see here that we now have purpose I've often argued that life in Christ is the death of boredom because if the chief end of man is to bring glory to God by enjoying him forever that brings purpose into my neighborhood purpose into my workplace purpose into my sons and daughters activities it means that I am reflecting the light of Christ anywhere and everywhere I can by enjoying him and I enjoy him by lining myself up with his good right commands that are meant to lead me into the fullest life possible Jesus is the light of the world so now I know you're hearing these things as whole people like you've come in here with a specific mindset and that mindset has informed your heart a specific way and so that being a reality you are sensing something I'm saying in wildly different ways so here we are about 1500 us here and a lot more on the other side of that camera down in Dallas over and forward down in planter over in Plano I'm directionally challenged but but in the midst of all that we're hearing this and because we have different mindsets that have shaped how we think and feel and interact with information we're all kind of processing this differently but here's my role in my hope I simply I mean not to judge you in any way today only to lay before you that Jesus is the light of the world in the hopes that by the grace of God you might begin to make sense of that feeling of being unformed is all about you might trust upon the name of Jesus but if you feel stuck in darkness and have tried to get out of it only to continually stub your toe or trip over things or not quite be able to make it into the light that Jesus is the light of the world and I've just prayed all week long that if you feel like you know you're kind of chasing things you're never gonna be Tom Brady but you're doing all right and in life just that you just hit that low ceiling quickly I'm just hopeful that the Holy Spirit of God might awaken your heart to believe that Jesus is the light of the world in Christian if you're walking an ongoing secret sin that you might remember the goodness of God's grace to you and you might take the off-ramp of confession before those folks go in deeper and lead to death and destruction Jesus is the light of the world and those who follow him will not walk in darkness but will walk in light and this is true because he knows where he came from and he knows where he's going let's pray father I thank you for these men and women and I do just what a joy to be together today and let you press on us a little bit let you encourage us a little bit let you stir our affections and so I pray even as we turn our attention to you in song and communion and the other things we'll do here that you might father encourage us grant us courage to confess do the work of illumination Holy Spirit of God and it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: Truth Endures

Views: 9,022

Rating: 4.7037039 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler

Id: R7KgnW4cy5k

Length: 50min 58sec (3058 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2016