Revelation: All Things New - Week 12 - Sermons - Matt Chandler

hi guys pastor matt chandler here pray that this sermon this resource uh be used by god in conjunction with you belonging to a local church to grow you and sanctify you in your faith if these resources bless you would you consider giving back to us here at tbc you can do that either through the app or you can go online to tbc resources and give there again pray that this blesses you and grows you in your love for jesus christ there is a battle coming the war has already begun it is raged unseen for millennia and though we often struggle to see the conflict for what it really is all of us can feel its effects we wrestle with the powers of sin and death on a daily basis and sometimes in our darkest moments it can feel like we're losing but the word of the lord tells a different story hope echoes throughout the pages of scripture despite the mystery that surrounds it the book of revelation offers the people of god a clear message fear not tomorrow tomorrow is one hey good morning church my name is carson today um i often play electric guitar on the worship band um i'm a senior flyer mount high school and i'm going to read revelation thank you guys thank you all right here's revelation 21 then i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and i saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of god is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and god himself will be with them as their god he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away and he who seated on the throne said behold i am making all things new also he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true and he said to me it is done i am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty i will give from the spring of the water of life without payment the one who conquers will have his heritage and i will be his god and he will be my son this is the word of the lord thanks be to god thanks carson well good morning if you have your bibles go ahead and open those last two chapters of our study through the book of revelation and man i i have had such a great time preaching this book with you uh to you i didn't i didn't know how much i needed the book does that make sense uh like even in my own spirit my own soul to be built up and encouraged and reminded uh it's been so good for me i've got this mixture of uh joy and sadness that it's kind of over trevor joy made the joke that i should just keep going and call it revelations from revelation uh and and yet i think this is just a good uh stopping point i don't know uh where you grew up or how you grew up here's what i understood this is how i understood the world was going to end uh after i became a christian at the first baptist church in which uh i was saved and here is the here's the narrative maybe this will be the narrative you knew maybe maybe it won't uh what i heard uh was that before suffering and loss got really really bad that i was going to get sucked up into the air it's the rapture right and you know it's like where do you where'd my friend go you know and and then because all the stuff that god said to his people about how suffering would show the glory of god in their lives he he was kidding he's just gonna suck us out right before all that happens and then jesus much like luke skywalker uh was gonna show up in a kind of spiritual x-wing fighter uh he was gonna kind of dodge demonic photon phasers and he was gonna drop two spiritual torpedoes down into the exhaust shaft of the earth destroying the earth forever while you and i live some other place for eternity uh in some sort of ethereal space called heaven anybody else grew up with that that was the one you grew up with that's what i grew up with i was terrifying and confusing and it really would be like an epic ending it's except it's not biblical it's not what the bible actually teaches and so what i want to try to do is what i've been trying to do all the while in this 12-week series the purpose of the book of revelation is to embolden your confidence in the king of kings and lord of lords come what may and so what i want to do here's the outline you don't have to wonder where we're going what what does the end of all things look like what is your future and my future here's going to be what i'm arguing about it is in a literal place with literal physical people in the presence of the creator god there's your outline from these two chapters so let's let's dive into this i want you to notice if you even paying attention to the passage that we just read that that the idea that you and i escape isn't the story what happens did you get sucked up into heaven or did heaven come down well i see you look confused the text said heaven comes down not that you and i go somewhere else but actually that week three convergent space that we talked about you remember that sermon that that idea of convergent space where we looked that all of the universe was flowing into this throne and on this throne sat the lion lamb who ruled and reigned over everything and he was worshiped and exalted and praised and that you and i as christians sealed with the holy spirit like we can get into that space we can this little space where heaven and earth they just kiss for a second and we're we're there when we gather in worship we're in that convergent space when you're praying in your home you're in that convergent space wherever the people of god dial into heaven we we get these glimpses we get these tastes we get these moments where that reality breaks through this passage just said all of that just comes down and lands that it's not some sort of ethereal otherworldly escapist reality like you're not going to get rescued out of a broken world the broken world will be redeemed and you'll stay now what you see in this passage here's how i would argue you just see materiality everywhere around this passage there are gates there are walls there is a river there are trees that bear fruit in season this is a physical location right like a real place not like not i've said this for 20 years not tom and jerry not you on a cloud playing a harp if that's my if that's the end of my go i'm going to say no thank you but that's not that this is the world remade if you're like what about that first peter passage where the whole thing's destroyed with fire it's not destroyed with fire it's refined with fire god doesn't aboli you think he's gonna concede the earth to his enemies like have you have you been paying attention to the god of this book the real god of the bible not the feathered hair why jesus like the god of the bible like this jesus you're looking at him you think he's gonna you know just take the earth i'll start over and ain't doing that what do you think the incarnation is but bam i mean it's mine what do you think the resurrection is but a reminder that the earth is the lord's and everything in it he's not conceding the earth to the enemy it's his and it is is as an inheritance ours george eldon lad whether you ever read him or know him i'm i would prefer you know him you don't have to go out and read lad but he says this the bible always places men and women on a redeemed earth not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence god will not concede the earth to the enemy it will be remade it will be renewed and the bible has a lot to say about this the prophets have a lot to say about this they said the deserts will bloom with roses since the mountaintops will produce sweet wine that the wolf and the lamb will lie down together that the lion will chew straw like the oxen this is the world renewed the world remade one of my favorite theologians this is sidebar if you ever want to understand me theologically you just need to know that augustine and athanasius are my two ancient friends those were the guys that shaped my understanding of the bible shaped my my understanding of the world that you and i and i would just encourage you to have an ancient friend doesn't have to be augustine and athanasius but you need an ancient friend because otherwise you're going to get really tricked by the day and age in which you live the church can do some really dumb stuff if she doesn't understand her roots so augustine and athanasius two african bishops they do a great job of rooting me in what's true and right and i've always loved this quote by augustine if you've been a member of the village church this won't surprise you so augustine let's do this how many of you have seen the mediterranean sea like you've seen it not a picture like you've been there go ahead i mean we hate you but get your hand up so we can just see all right great congratulations now so you've seen it maybe you've seen pictures maybe you're just like ah so augustine says he's uh you know bishop northern africa his book city of god just committed to you rome's circling the drain he's about to retire as an old man and he pens city of god where he compares the city of man rome versus the city of god what we're talking about it's an exceptional book it's dense but you can do it i believe in you now what he says in that book is augustine looking out at the mediterranean sea at the sun setting with all that that would entail i can only imagine having been blessed like some of you suckers he he says if these are the beauties afforded to sinful men what does god have in store for those who love him dang right so so we're talking about a renewed creation like one that makes every little thing that takes our breath away now look weak and but a shell you imagine that like what are we taught like all you can do is kind of have some conjecture that that's mind-bending like when you see and here's what i would love for the spirit to do every time you see an epic sunset you know we've got them around here like just all sorts of wild colors in the sky i would just love for you to go man that's incredible but not as incredible as it will be you get to go to the mountains you get to go to the oceans you get to go to the grand canyon you need to go to any physical natural place that stirs up your affections i would love for the spirit of god to just roll to the front of your mind that's incredible and it's not half of what it will be this is it comes down renewed but it's not just it's not just literal redeemed physical space it's also filled with literal embodied physical redeemed peoples not people peoples look at the text 21 3 notice that it's people's plural not people singular all of god's chosen peoples god gathers up the full range of the world's ethnic diversity in the same way that god doesn't destroy material stuff he doesn't destroy the people so various ethnicities are not a problem to be solved but rather there's something in it that shows the beauty of god's creative being there's something there that god says this is a part of all things being made new that no one ethnicity no one culture can bear the brunt can bear the weight of the breadth and beauty of the creator god of the universe so who's in this physical space physical people are no one i've already said this i'm let me move scroll now there's this here here's what i want to i want to build i want to show you this fascinating passage i want to be honest with you that it's a debated passage and i want to tell you where i land that's what i've been trying to do this whole series so here we go uh 21 24 by its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it now um this is where what i want to highlight um that you and i in resurrected bodies first corinthians 15 we don't have to first get resurrected bodies will reign and rule in this place alongside of king jesus now i don't know what that means other than you and i are there in physical bodies right that touch smell see eat like we're there we're eating a feast we we actually have jobs when all things are said and done look at me jobs without toil anybody experience toil in their job you're all right unless you're sitting by your boss and then just just stare at me right like look work involves toil that's a result of sin adam and eve were given these massive jobs and loved it delighted in it rejoiced in it until sin entered the cosmos and it fractured it and what was how were they condemned in genesis 3 well yeah now your work's going to produce thorns and thistles now from the sweat of your brow you'll take from the earth now and and so now we've got this restoration where we will work but work without toil and here's what's fascinating about this passage to me one of the things we read about earlier in the gospels is that you and i will actually rule as kings and judges of angels and sit in some cases over cities could it be in this passage that the kings of the earth is a reference to the people of god who are reigning and ruling alongside of jesus christ but then what i want to add to it because i think it's it makes it it roots it back where i'm trying to root it where the bible roots it in a physical reality and not an ethereal cloud is that kings in the first century weren't just rulers but they embodied the very culture of the nation so that they carried with them like if you wanted to know what a a nation believed about education you need to only see its king you want to know whether they were a warrior culture or an aggregate culture or you just need only look at their king you want to know what they believe about family dynamics look to the king you want to look so so you've got this this quick little verse that's saying that there's this literal redeemed remade physical location new heavens new earth and the kings of earth i think that's a reference back to you and i now carry our trophies our cultures into this new reality so that every culture has what's dark burnt off of it and what's beautiful brought into the kingdom i don't know if you've been able to travel all over the gosh you don't even have to travel outside the country there are micro cultures all around us ways of seeing ways of celebrating ways of interacting with the world like when i one of the things i i would say like when i'm in england preaching i need to back off if i'm in japan i need to back i don't need to hug everybody right it freaks them out but if i'm in italy if i'm in brazil like those are my i feel like those are my people right i mean we just touch we're loud we yell these things we're always going everywhere like these are my people and so when all said and done if that was offensive i apologize um but all these cultures renewed are a part of this new physical reality which means if you always go oh i i would love to celebrate like that but nobody in in my space celebrates like that well guess what that that'll be pr like all cultures are bringing in their trophies to this new reality a physical place with peoples with kings with culture this is rooting our future in something that's tangible and real i i love this quote from anthony hokema he's a reformed theologian don't let that scare you he's got this um he's got this great article it's a journal article on the new heavens and new earth and he's just riffing here a little bit so let me read it will there be better beethovens on the new earth shall we see better rembrandts better raphaels shall we read better poetry better drama or better prose will scientists continue to advance in technological achievements now that'll mess with you won't it anybody thought about that in the new heavens and new earth i hadn't like why would you why would you need that i don't know he's just hey it's anthony i'm not i'm just reading him will geologists continue to dig out the treasures of the earth and will architects continue to build imposing and attractive structures will there be enticing new adventures in space travel well he keeps going but i'll just stop there you see what he's doing he's rooting it in a reality that you and i don't think about we we think spatial we we think spiritual we don't think physical and present and this passage is dismantling that this is new physical heaven and earth this is new resurrected bodies this is all ethnicities every tribe tongue and nation on earth present this is culture from every part of every people's everywhere creating this new experience for us all that is not tainted by anything broken this is unreal this is unbelievable i wish we had a little bit more time i learned in the 8 30 that we don't but in revelation 22 1 through 2 we see this picture of life like real life i tried to talk about this a little equity just look at me for a second your capacity my capacity to experience life as god designed it is very difficult in a sinful broken world the spirit of god will break through but by and large this is very difficult for us to fully experience like here let me again um augustine augustine in city of god he talks about when when we get to this moment that the natural defenses of the body no longer need to defend the body so they give themselves over to praise so the illustration he uses is the liver like the the liver no longer needs to clean the blood it just doesn't need to clean the blood because there's nothing there to kill or to harm the skin doesn't need to defend like it's given over so you have this like this kind of life that's impossible like we don't even know what we're carrying right now however we feel run down and don't even know why because there's some tiny little virus in us right feel exhausted and don't know why because man we just sat too close to a brother who didn't know how to sneeze into his elbow but into his hand right like he's he's trying to say hey there's this there's this life that you're going to have that it's hard to even i've just got to use imagery because you're not even going to be able to get around it and then here's the big one guys a literal redeemed place literal redeemed peoples in his presence the ever increasing joy of this reality is not oh the sunsets are prettier not oh i'm not i'm not struggling in my job oh man if you i've got life no no the reward is the presence of jesus the rewards the presence of jesus unblocked unfettered nothing to keep us from seeing him and this changes everything like look there in verse 1. did you see that there's no c there well the sea if you read your bible and you just do a study of the word sea the sea to men and women across biblical times stood for chaos they were terrified of the sea they didn't want to go near the sea they didn't want to be they were terrified it was unknown it was chaotic it could flare up and kill everybody in any given moment and so when he's saying hey the presence of god is that there'll be no sea he's saying where the presence of god is there's no chaos chaos is gone can you imagine no chaos in life not just your life like nobody's life i can't even get my head around a world without drama in my house at my office on an airplane to chicago drama drama drama okay but but not here there'll be no drama look at verse four no tears no death no disease no mourning no no crying that verse touches many people in this room and touches everybody in this room in the sense that we know somebody that's in one of those right now like again try to imagine a reality in which no one is sick gosh no one's sad no one's crying about any there's literally nothing to mourn nothing to mourn look at me no regrets and the former things they'll remember no more no wait in the moment no heartache in the moment just site look at verse 22 i'm gonna unpack 22 significantly here in a moment but no temple in verse 22 and then no closed gates and 25. why don't you need to close the gates and the new habits of new earth look at me because nobody's coming no he's coming nobody's coming to steal anything or he's coming to attack anybody nobody's got it is over on that front there are no enemies outside or inside evermore this is what he's saying but but 22 is where i want to spend some time look at let's look at it this is um chapter 21 verse 22 and i saw no temple in the city if you write in your bible i would just encourage you to circle this for its temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb so again if we're reading this as a jewish man or woman in 96 a.d we would have gasped at that idea where do you commune with god where do you get in his presence how do you get to that place that you were meant to actually be well you went to the temple it was where god chose to dwell remember once a year the the great high priest would go in to make atonement and only one guy once a year got to go into a cube-shaped holy of holies anybody pay attention to how this new reality is shaped anybody pay attention that's shaped as a cube well should we read about the cube in solomon's temple in the holy of holies the whole world has become the holy of holies the whole world's become the holy of holies now what makes all of this what it is is that sentence right there there's one more sentence that i'm going to unpack because i i've got two but but this idea that god is the temple let me try to this might send some head spinnings we're fine we're gonna be fine that you and i in this new reality positioned physical body's physical place in the holy of holies are invited right into the middle of the heart of the triune god of the universe our whole experience on this side of things has been you are mighty you are we're outside we're looking up we're outside we've got a little bit inside of us as much as this little physical body can happen without exploding looking up marveling at but in this new reality you and i step right into the middle of the triune god of the universe in the middle of all that love all that power all that all that love all that and just blows our new reality into us into the stratosphere like to be in the middle of the trinity in the middle of that love in the middle of that power in the middle of that piece in the middle of what created the cosmos that's what makes all of this beautiful not that you got a job that doesn't make you tired not that you don't get sick i would contend if you could live forever and you couldn't be in this presence you wouldn't want to live forever you already experienced this because things get old to you why don't things get old here well because jesus is an inexhaustible well and you get to slip right into the middle of it which is why the the the apostle paul says that it's going to take the coming ages for you to understand just the depth of his grace and mercy for us in fact i think this vision of the future is what helps you understand paul like i know everybody you read paul say i don't consider the the present suffering of this age as worthy to be compared and go really to live is christ and to die as gain really this is what paul's looking at paul's like what are you going to do to me are you going to kill me great to gain oh you're going to torture me well this is where i'm headed torture away i love that i got a chance to i've quoted daryl johnson a lot in this series and um his assistant apparently heard a couple of the sermons so she told doctor he's like hey this kid chilling down in dallas you have to call him he's like i'm not calling him i'm gonna call so i got to hop on a zoom call daryl johnson this week it kind of freaked me out a little bit um i'm just calling dr johnson until he frees me up but um this was a this is i love this quote um from his book discipleship on the edge we will finally live consciously so within the circle of the inner trinitarian relations of god we mere creatures and creation itself will be drawn into the circle of holy love that has forever existed as father son and holy spirit that's incredible like to be invited right into the very core of the godhead not just us but all of creation so that we live dwell have our being in that place for eternity this isn't clouds and harps this is raining and ruling and resurrected bodies alongside our king and savior in his inexhaustible well of joy and goodness for eternity and then i we would would be fools if we didn't look at this look at 22 4. and they will see his face i've been following jesus christ for over 22 23 years now gosh it's probably more than that i should have done the math before i got up here i'm not quick with math up on i've been following the lord for a long time i have rejoiced i have wept i have felt undone i have felt done i have wrestled with him i have argued with him i have never been forsaken by him i have been protected by him i have been defended by him he has rescued me he has redeemed my bloodline he has held me fast in the darkest moments of my life he was right there i have prayed and felt like it was hitting the ceiling i have prayed prayers that would be embarrassing if they were ever to be aired out to anybody else i've consistently fallen short of what he has for me i'm still after all these years so slow to obey and i'm gonna see him face to face and on that day what you and i will hear once we can maybe he has to pick us up it's well done i don't feel like well done i mean i feel like i got some like some arguments to have a well done well you saw this right you know what about gosh man you know what this is you must feel that way we will see him face to face and there is now no condemnation for those of you who are in christ jesus you will not on that day catch an eye roll look please he has no lecture to give you you will not rehash anything he will not ask you those loaded questions that cut what were you thinking you an idiot did i not prove myself to you over and over no you will see him face to face well done enter into your reward and in every way i know how by the grace of god i'm going to live for that moment i'm going to live for i'm living for that moment and we are right now 54 minutes closer than when we walked in and this orients the christian life a day closer a week closer a month closer a year closer never being defined by a given season of life always being defined by our identity in christ confession repentance ongoing ethics of the christian progressive sanctification spirit of god making us more and more and more and more like jesus until we can see him face to face moses didn't even get to see him face to face as god said you can't do it you explode your little human face couldn't handle it so hide in the rock i'm just going to show you my jacket but something happens here what happens here is glorification resurrected bodies the here's how to think about resurrected body the imputed righteousness that's true about you spiritually actually becomes true about you physically in a way that's not true about you like the body that you have is not your resurrected body and i'm telling you as a 46 almost 47 year old i praise god for that this thing's starting to break down all over the place right but the day is coming where my internal righteousness that jesus has bestowed upon me actually becomes physical so i can see him face to face and not be inviscerated again this helps you understand the apostle paul to live his christ to die is gain i don't count the suffering of this world as worthy to be compared to the future glory it sustains it anchors it reorients or at least it should so how do we how do we conclude this well let's look at uh revelation 22 starting verse 17. the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and and let the one who is thirsty let him come and let the one who desires take the water of life without price two things as we close out this series here's the first one i want you to pay attention to the passage the spirit is that look at your bible is that capital s or is that lowercase s capital okay good all right that means we're talking third person of the trinity god the spirit god the spirit says come have a seat drink water of life without price who else is saying come huh the bride yeah the the bride of christ who's that us the the church and so is this book is landing what is jesus saying hey the spirit and the bride continually invites from those outside of the kingdom people to come inside the kingdom and pull up a chair right is a meal again we talked about this last week have a seat does this not remind you of the very last verse of revelation 3 where the text says lord i stand at the door and knock and if anyone would open i would come in and dine with him hey if you're not a christian like you've never said yes to jesus and i mean full-on yes to jesus maybe you've been reading your bible with a friend or you know god's been kicking up the spirit's been kicking up kind of interest in spiritual realities and you've just kind of been hanging out with us for a little while as you try to figure this out uh we love you here's what we're going to do we're going to do what this text says that the spirit has been kicking all that up in you now here's the bride hey come sit down with us come have a drink of living water passage says it's free belief in the righteousness of jesus over your own repentance drink and we look i'm we'd love for you to just have a seat here at our little table here at the village we're inviting you pulling out a chair come have a seat and give you an opportunity to do that a moment but here's where i want to talk to tbc um i know we have a lot of guests and and i'm so glad you're here again i enjoy meeting people all over the place um but if you're here you tracking with me when i mean that like you're here um my question for us is which reality are we going to live into as a church are we going to live into the reality of man we're losing and we're uh we're we don't ultimately have any victory and let's be quiet so uh people don't dog us out or we don't get in trouble or we don't get fired we don't get looking like a fool or we don't get are we gonna live into that reality or are we gonna know victory is ours we're taking it all we're plundering and so i told you week one what i i'm as i already said i'm 46 about to be 47 i have no intention spending the last 20 years of fruitful life force managing nonsense i want to call some problems like i you remember the story in the book of acts where the seven sons of skeva are casting out uh the demon and the demon speaks to the seven sons of skiva and says hey i know jesus i've heard of paul who are you i kind of want to pastor a church where the demon is like no jesus heard of the village oh and i can't pastor a church where he's like but who are you so which reality are we corporately going to live into which reality and and here's what's crazy like uh i can preach my face off but you've got to hear from the spirit be obedient like like the church of jesus christ isn't built up through just proclamation on sunday it's the people of god actually owning their faith look there is no varsity threshold for christian living there's just those who are willing to be obedient i mean gosh look at the people god picks in the bible these are not world beaters these are like the leftovers they really are like who in here doesn't have significant issues they all do just how god works so so here's my question for you christian specifically villager what have you not laid down my experience around tables with men and with women is that almost all of us are pretty much aware of what's keeping us from fully surrendering to jesus christ and and being transformed by his presence and power it's just my experience and so it might surprise you it's not always some heinous sin some sometimes maybe this is a heinous sin sometimes it's just you can't actually believe that god's grace is for you the number of men in particular i'm using men because that's who i'm spending most of my time with men in particular that just feel and i don't know if the daddy issue i don't know what in the world is going on but just like oh man i could never i couldn't you know i see i could never be that it's just so like what's the enemy's primary weapon accusation you don't know a christian that has access to something that you don't have access to christian so if you look out and you see something man that guy has a lot of authority or a lot of power i mean i'd love for my life to look like that but i'm just saying drift towards that and now hey can you t what is that i'd love that i don't know how to do that if you want to you know keep sleeping then man you can do that i mean i think most of the american church is doing that right now just to sleep but but if you want to actually make some war you want to actually go to work you must believe that what god says about you is true you must believe that what god says about you is true and the more you refuse to believe it the more you i think nullify and cut off what what i'll just say is your destiny what would god has called you up into so my question for you believer specifically believer here at the villages is what is that thing that you have just held on to just have not laid down just have refused to deal with maybe because it would cost too much you think or maybe because you don't know what to do once you you lay it down and so my invitation to you today is to finally do something with it just really struggle with god's love for you then you and you just you need to grab hold of ephesians 2 and just pray that over yourself over grab hold of ephesians just pray that over yourself over and over and over and over and over again you've got secret sin in your life you put that stuff to death today you don't you just feel like you don't know how to pray you don't have to read your bible you just go to the christian you know that does and says dead government is so embarrassing been in church for 40 years i have no idea what's going on here can you help me we talked about basic things gosh if you had any idea what prayer walk in your neighborhood did in this stuff that we're talking about you'd be doing it every day you had any idea what that would do to you spiritually you'd be doing it every day i'm gonna end this is not a spectator sport you know what i mean by that like this isn't let's sit in the the stands and cheer on matt and grant that's not like no thank you no i don't i don't need you to applaud for me but i want you to fight with me i want you to make a noise i want to make hell a little nervous i want to plunder property to the end of the earth i want to fight towards this day which we are closer to today than we've ever been so do me a favor about your heads close your eyes we're almost there guys again my experience is that most christians know what those things are that need to be laid at the feet of jesus so that they might walk fully in what god has for them they they know it's lust or it's their finances or it's unforgiveness in their heart or it's anger or it's they just can't believe that god loves them and so if that's you today and you're like man i know i know the spirit of god is leading me into more boldness more life more seriousness i know that jesus has kind of been attached to my life but i know the spirit is moving me into jesus being my life but i've got some things i've got to lay at his feet got some things i've got to confess i know i've got some obedience that i need to step into if that's you and here would you just lift your hand like like you know it i need to repent of that i need to lay that down just like i'm gonna just keep saying this i don't want you to raise your hand like you're baptist yeah there you go great yeah we do praise god all right now go ahead and put those hands down now here's the second thing i want to ask if you're here today and you're like man i have never really said yes to jesus i have never sat at that table taken the cup and drank the living water and i still got questions but i've heard enough i'm saying yes today i'm just saying yes to jesus christ be my life forgive my sins thank you for letting me sit at your table teach me the path to life if that's you today you just never done that just never said yes and sat down just raise your hand where you are you don't have to i want to do that i want to sit at that table and and drink that cup just lift your hand hot again we're not baptist here i mean we are but we're not great just put your hands down now i'm gonna pray for us and here's what i would ask you to do if you raised your hand and just said man i know i specifically have areas of my life that i have not fully surrendered to jesus i know i have been prompted in both in study of my bible and by the holy spirit to live into this to walk into this to confess this to deal with this and i have not and i'm doing that today you confess that to the lord and then you need to what what is the action step as you walk out today we're doers of the word not just hearers so what does that look like for you to step into that and then if you raised your hand and you said man i have never said yes to jesus i want to fully say yes i want to surrender my life i want to sit at that table i want to drink that living water and i want to spend eternity in this city then i you just need to pray that to god there's no magic words you just say i i want to live with you i want you to be my life forgive me where i've tried to be about my life and now teach me how to live in you so let me give you some time just to just pray a bit here [Music] uh father i bless these men and women for the prayers coming from the deep places of the heart for my brothers and sisters where they get the sense again that you're calling them deeper in just pray that surrender to it i just pray against the enemy who would so accused right now so lie would so try to make things that they're going to be embarrassed or that it's going to cost too much i just pray that you break the mouth of the enemy right now that you shut his mouth so that they might hear pray courage over them to not just confess here but then to take the necessary steps to walk into what you have for them and then i pray for those that said man i want to want to sit i want to surrender i want to follow jesus i want to move towards this new city [Music] i ask courage for them i thank you for the gift of salvation you and you alone salvation and so i thank you that you so readily invite so readily extend so relatively woo to yourself and so i just asked salvation for these brothers and sisters this morning i think you're granting it and it's for your beautiful name i pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 17,861

Rating: 4.8935361 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: u3E-s-eHeDw

Length: 47min 39sec (2859 seconds)

Published: Tue May 04 2021