Revelation: Cosmic Battle - Week 6 - Sermons - Matt Chandler

hi guys pastor matt chandler here pray uh 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 good morning church family my name is carrie wilson my husband ron and i serve here in the connections ministry we are also home group coaches and home group deacons join me as we read revelation 12 1-11 and a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth and another sign appeared in heaven behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it she gave birth to a male child one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was caught up to god and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by god in which she is to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days now war arose in heaven michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven and the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and satan the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him and i heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our god and the authority of his christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our god and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death this is the word of the lord thanks be to god thanks gary if you have your bibles i would love for you to actually grab them i'm going to be highlighting things from this chapter more than just we read that what we just read there and i and i want you to be able to see it uh and get a sense of what's happening here um last weekend um there was a massive conference really uh that went out around the world called if uh jenny allen who's like a older sister to me she's probably gonna be offended by that but it's okay uh is a dear friend uh got a vision from the lord for this ministry to to call women into serious discipleship and serious worship of jesus christ and and lauren and i have got to kind of be in that orbit since it began uh and so i'm one of the few men uh at the if gathering down in dallas and jenny the lord has just put a lot of favor on jenny and he kind of opened up some doors for her to interview the leader of the house church movement in iran if you're unaware uh the largest revival in the world right now is actually taking place in iran um and and it's epic i mean dreams and visions and super i mean it's just crazy what's going on in iran right now and and the guy that's kind of leading that movement leading that revival was in interviewed by jenny it was just this fascinating look at uh what it would be like to actually be a persecuted church uh rather than what we're calling it um and and man if you if you want in on that you can you can just go to youtube or you can go to the website sheep among wolves uh i would just warn you uh that it is you probably don't want to pop a bag of popcorn and sit down with your four-year-old and watch it all right but uh it is intense uh painful to watch uh but a picture of what it looks like to serve jesus is a picture of that passage we we just read uh that they loved not their own lives unto death mom and in the interview with with this man who is like i mean the the dubbing and everything they did to kind of hide that this person was was pretty significant and they started talking about the church in the western world and normally my flag goes up i think the western world gets dogged in ways that aren't fair and then sometimes we get explained in ways that are fair and when asked about the church in the west this man who's had friends killed family killed people he loves thrown in prison said this it's like the west is under some sort of satanic lullaby he he said it's like the whole thing with jesus is like someone's just going shhh go back to no no pull up the blanket and listen as someone who's pastored in the west for 20 plus years that resonated with me and so really the heart of revelation for me was to be a kind of alarm that said hey can we wake up can can we wake up at what's actually happening here and internally there are a lot of people on staff like hey why don't we do romans why don't we do i love romans romans is the mount everest of theological books i love the book of romans but man in my spirit reading this chapter just randomly i'm like no no no i i want to sound the alarm and i want to by the grace of god go there's a reason why we're getting the trash kicked out of us and if by the grace of god you'd wake up we might see something in our day and if we don't we're also going to see something in our day and it's going to be gut-wrenching and so i'm simply here to sound the alarm in in this passage so some things to keep in mind we're in window three so remember revelation is not linear it's not what happens next it's what does john see next so this is window three window one was the throne room remember centering worship convergent space that was window one we saw ultimate reality christ enthroned it was unbelievable and and we're in it right now we're in that convergent space and then and then scene two window two is the opening of the seals the blowing of the trumpets and now between the trumpets and the bulls we have an intermission and the intermission is the window we're in this week and next this week and next are both one window we're gonna see the cosmic battle this week and next week we see the two beasts come out of the sea on how the dragon actually makes war against the people of god and so that's what you've got coming for you the next two weeks i know that they get you all kind of riled up now we have two signs and a scheme that's that's chapter 12. two signs in a scheme it's important to note that a sign points to something else the sign isn't the point but the sign is pointing to something and the first sign that we have in our passage there in the first two verses is this woman uh and this woman if you were to draw her out is odd right i mean if you were to kind of draw out you got these stars like she's got the moon on her feet she's got like this is just a weird image but remember why we have apocalyptic imagery it's meant to stir up our spirit in ways that just hey this is mary doesn't all right so the the easiest reading of revelation this is this is clearly the virgin mary and i think it is but i think i want to argue that it's bigger than mary so let me say it this way it's not just mary so it is mary as we'll see soon but it's bigger than mary and we know that from all these stars and suns and moons so remember there's nothing in revelation that hasn't already been said somewhere else in the bible i'm coming back to that over and over and over again in this series in genesis 37 verse 9 joseph has this dream if you went through uh men's or women's bible study you did the genesis study this you'll you'll recall some of this uh joseph has this dream of the sun and the moon and 11 stars bowing to him and if the son is his father jacob and the moon is his mother rachel and the 11 stars are his brother with joseph being the 12th star this sign of a woman with the 12 stars in her crown is actually the people of god she is israel the people of god the prophet isaiah says that there's coming a time where the people of god give birth to one who will make war against the dragon isaiah 66 7-9 says this before she was in labor she gave birth do you hear it before she was in labor she gave birth before her pain came upon her she delivered a son who has heard such a thing who has seen such things shall a land be born in one day shall a nation be brought forth in one moment for as soon as zion was in labor she brought forth her children shall i bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth says the lord shall i who caused to bring forth shut the womb says god so the prophet isaiah is saying hey the people of god are going to give birth to the one will make war against the dragon so the woman is a sign of the people of god both before jesus and after jesus she represents israel mary and the church all at once she is the ideal church as she's seen in heaven this is the woman she's not the only sign here you also have this sign of the dragon look there in verse nine in particular you can read about them earlier in verse four but we're gonna look at nine and the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and satan the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him so his color is the color of red he is a killer he is a murderer he is violent in his nature right uh we see that he has seven heads seven heads representing complete authority albeit borrowed authority not ultimately his authority authority given to him by god he has ten horns horns are a symbol of strength ten is a lot of strength and doesn't verse nine that one we just read doesn't it remind you uh for those of you who know your your bible real well doesn't that hearken you back to genesis 3 15 where we clearly have enmity between the woman and the serpent and this coming collision where an offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and the serpent would strike his heel wore enmity between the dragon and the people of god now i want to highlight this and ladies i want you to pay specific attention one of the things that happens historically and consistently is when a culture gives itself over to depravity and wickedness when a culture turns its back on the things of god women and children suffer the most over and over and over and over again where a culture says forget the things of god and turn their back on them women and children are brutalized why let me try to explain why stephen dempster who's a theologian said one of the great themes of the old testament is woman against the beast look at this quote eve versus the serpent sarah and rebecca versus baroness tamar versus judah jochebed and miriam versus pharaoh deborah and jael versus syria ruth and naomi versus death hannah versus baroness jehoshaphat versus uh thea in all these examples of struggle these women of faith are engaged in a battle to save the people of god the victory of esther over haman dramatically continues this thing ladies satan hates you he wants to destroy you he wants to devour our children this is what's happening in this passage now we get our first non-sign the woman the dragon gives birth to a sun the sun is not a sign the sun will rule with an iron scepter the sun is jesus christ now if you know your bible is this not matthew chapter two well what happens as the people of god now mary is giving birth to jesus does not herod set uh his face to kill every boy under the age of two born in this place that jesus is born is this not the dragon getting ready to pounce on the sun and does not like the text says is not the sun whisk away to egypt and then ultimately to the right hand of god what you and i are seeing well let me let me say it this way i love this this is eugene peterson this is a different kind of christmas isn't it it is saint john's spirit appointed task to supplement the work of saint matthew and saint luke so that the nativity cannot be sentimentalized into coziness nor domesticated into worldliness this is not the nativity story we grew up with but it is the nativity story all the same this is important guys jesus's birth excites more than wonder it excites evil we are seen in this chapter not just christmas but the war between god and satan across all time it is the war behind all wars it is the cosmic war now hear this now because this is huge for us in fact we need to build on this we we have a victory of victor in the war already in fact six times in chapter 12 we read that the dragon was thrown down the word thrown down here in the greek i love this if you like slang you'll appreciate it it's bounced the dragon got bounced out of heaven right so that when we were reading like the archangel michael and this war broke out and how did it end dragon got bounced right i just i i've loved that and then you see in the passage there's rejoicing in heaven but woe to those of you who are on earth verse 17 then the dragon became furious with the woman the people of god and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring on those who keep the commandments of god and hold to the testimony of jesus and he stood on the sand of the sea look at me if you want to know why things are so difficult if you want to know why there's disease and death and depression and anxiety and injustice and racism and every other type of wickedness in the world the bible's trying to dial you into it like like we are not to be people with rose cold glasses on denying the brutality in the world that that is around us we actually have the answer to why that brutality actually exists if you want to know why things can be so hard this passage is helpful we are in a war with a defeated and desperate enemy who longs to destroy us now the the good news is ultimate victory is ours we read it all i'll emphasize it here in a little bit but the apostle paul commends us or encourages us this way as we think about life in the space between between now and all things being made new he says this in second corinthians 2 11 so that we would not be outwitted by satan for we are not ignorant of his designs that that greek word is actually schemes right that you and i are not to be outwitted by satan but we're to understand his scheme so we have this enemy this enemy's been set loose with authority from god on earth to make war against the offspring of the woman and that we are not to be ignorant of the schemes of the enemy and so what i want to do is spend my time chatting with you about scheme so we can spot him and so we can counter punch this sucker in his face all right i know that's not church talk but it i'm trying to show you it is i think that's part of the problem here are the three schemes of the enemy that you see in this passage you ready accusation deceit and death the three schemes of the enemy employed to destroy you and to destroy me as children of god accusation deceit and death let's look at accusation look at verse 10 and i heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our god and the authority of his christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our god accusation is the full frontal attack of our enemy he exists to accuse you and to get you to agree with the accusation the number one tactic of the enemy to take from you what is yours and to take you completely out of this fight is accusation he accuses you he accuses god he accuses others both groups and individuals he does this to harass to create doubt division discord to dehumanize and to destroy this is what this is accusation and i've taught on this before i think it's important that you know this almost is always born of a word or a wound so this isn't psychobabble this is the word of god i wish i had time to to take 10 minutes and flesh this out maybe another day that's the good thing about going i'm here for another couple of decades is to be able to go hey we'll get to it everyone in this room is carrying some wound from your family of origin that does not mean that your parents were bad people you could have interpreted things certain ways you could have taken things certainly but but all of us there was something spoken over us or some wound that happened to us that that the enemy used to kind of get in there and just slice and then as we've grown up that accusation that we're not man enough or we're not good enough or we're not pretty enough or we're not smart enough or we're not whatever you fill in the blank has grown up and we own it and we agree with it and it just destroys us this is his primary game to accuse you and have you agree with the accusation so as to take you completely out of the game this is a this is primary tactic we're so oblivious to it like watch you know how many people have told me i don't know how to pray that's ridiculous you know how to pray that's an accusation that you've believed no i really don't know how to pray can you say god i don't know how to pray that's a prayer right you've bought into a lie and you've agreed with the lie so good knows good lord knows you're not going to pray because you've convinced yourself that you can't pray when all praying is talking to god oh when i read the bible i don't get of course you don't get it but you can read because i can ask you about the dallas cowboys you tell me all about that i can ask you what joey and joanne gaines are doing you tell me all about that shiplap you know the word of god you just won't do it listen of course the bible's not coming alive to you you know what's going to happen if it does then you're back in the fight the accusation of i don't understand the bible i don't know how to pray i don't know it's crap and you believe it and when you believe it it takes you out of the fight and you know what happens the enemy's like shh just said lay down let's go back to sleep buddy no that's fine let matt know the bible shh matt matt's got this oh you still upset here here's oh gosh where's my oh pacifier of netflix i don't know i didn't make that noise in the 830 that was for you right but tell me that's not what's going on i don't know how to study i don't know how to pray i don't know the bible i don't that's accusation it's not true and you should expect a spiritual fight so here's an idea fight him open up your bible and go i don't get it i want to get it help me holy spirit or swallow your pride and finally tell somebody i have been a lazy and i need somebody to help me like that this is getting back this is waking up this is getting in the game stop believing that you don't know how to pray you don't know how to read your bible you're too dumb to share the gospel you don't stop it it's a lie it's his primary way of killing us if you believe the accusations you will run from god rather than abide in his presence and all of the goodness of life is found in his presence if you believe these accusations you will neglect the scriptures which are the sword of the spirit like like how does that work how do i battle accusations with the sword of the spirit like this is awesome my dad doesn't get to tell me who i am the book tells me who i am lauren doesn't get to tell me who i am the bible tells me my kids don't define me the bible you don't even get to tell me who i am like how could i do what i'm doing right now if i put the power to define me in your hands now you can vote with your feet and go on down the road but i've got to please the lord right so like how free are you if you get to fight accusation with the word of god but in order to do that you have to actually know the word of god which requires you to come out from under the agreement that you can't know it you kidding me god put the cookies on the bottom shelf that's where he put him it's not the elite who make war against the enemy man god loves guys that can't read like really can't read look at me accusation look accusation gets its power from agreement you've got to be able to say that is not true that is not true about me that is not true about that group of people the the reason why we're so hostile and divided is because the enemy is actually even accused other people and we've gone yeah that group of people satan is the problem not the democrats huh is that should i expect some emails this week it's also important to note that we overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of the testimony so we say this every week i want you to dial in now here's what the bible says is true about you and me as christians that this matt chandler with all his regrets in the past with all his current struggles and with every screw-up that he's about to commit and maybe even just saying that and he was one of them has been fully freely and forever forgiven in christ right and that's true about you right that that's true about you and i know like here's what i have like even right now somebody like yeah maybe true about you but you don't know about me here's what's great i gotta know about you why because yet again this defines ultimate reality not the lie of the accuser this is the primary methodology the enemy use to absolutely destroy you and take you out of the game put you back down put that passy in your mouth give you that binky let you just drift off back to sleep while he still steals kills and destroys it's not just accusation though he also deceives this is great this is verse 9 he's the deceiver of the whole world jesus would say it like this in john 8 44 that he is the father of lies now i need you to follow me here now in fact i want eyes so if you'll look at me you just look right at me this is not just bad information the enemy wants you to feel a kind of way it's not just like knowing what's bad it's feeling something that's false right this isn't just i believe this wrongly this is the the enemy is trying to get you to feel that god is holding out on you he wants you to feel that god won't be enough he wants you to question whether god is good and he's true to his word listen he adds to he takes away from he twists he calls good bad and bad good and he's got millennia and millennia and millennia of practice to deceive and distort and to take from us what's rightfully ours and i think he comes at us in two primary ways the the first is just false doctrine it's just false doctrine it's believing about god things that aren't true it's believing things about god that aren't true doctrine does matter and i think one of the big lies is oh you don't need doctor a doctor will slow you down doctrine gets in the way of the spirit i think that's nonsensical now doctrine not embodied absolutely does doctrine not practiced absolutely does this is why jesus looks at the pharisees and says that you study the scriptures in vain because you think that in them you have life and yet you refuse to come to me to whom the scriptures testify so the scriptures aren't an end in themselves doctrine isn't an end in itself it's meant to make us gaze and marvel and be uh caught up in the beauty that is the god of the bible false doctrine's one of the ways he deceives here's another way that i've seen lately it's it's actually a tale as old as time um but it's new and it's happening for i tell you i know why it's getting a lot more traction now um i'm old enough now to have lived through a couple cycles um and and i know this and i knew this was happening when my daughter said hey dad can we get me some doc martens and i was like wait doug martens yeah like the boots yeah y'all are wearing those again yeah man i should have kept mine you know i would be stylish again but i'm not right like it and so man i watched the emergent church blow through and i didn't see any i didn't really lose anybody to that you know i just know it was out there it was kind of squishy doctrinally just didn't say anything just ask a lot of questions what if mary wasn't a virgin i mean just what if what if god wasn't really upset by sexual sin what if you know it's just that crap what if a lot of terrible things is what if right and so right now it's under the banner of deconstruction anybody seen this like deconstructing the faith so let me say every generation will need to deconstruct something just not orthodoxy so here's my story i get saved um not maybe at the pinnacle of the religious right movement and and i think the religious right was awesome to call sin sin but i thought they lacked empathy and compassion and it was like they were talking about centers without knowing any i don't know if you've ever been around somebody like that let me tell you something about those people okay tell me it's obvious that you know right and so i i when i talk about sin i want to do it the way i understand and see jesus doing it in the bible call it what it is but but approach a person with compassion and and mercy and and they need to know that i actually love them not that there's some sort of project to me so that was my kind of deconstruction but what's happening now is an outright deconstruction of orthodoxy right and again this isn't the first time it's happened so let me give you these two historic examples thomas jefferson right one of the smartest men to ever live thomas jefferson you know you know tom now thomas is a deist he's not a christian so that whole america was built no no he's not a christian he's a deist the dude took the bible and a pair of scissors and he thought that anything that was supernatural obviously wasn't real he was a child of the enlightenment and so that dude took scissors and cut out of the bible every miraculous supernatural thing and he made what's called the jefferson bible google it you can go see it in the bible museum in dc the dude just cut out and so did the slave owners the slave owners in the south took the bible they cut exodus oh they cut every verse that they thought would compel the slaves to believe that freedom should be theirs it's called the slave bible i'm not making google these things not now i'm preaching now what's happening right now what's happening in deconstruction right now is oh god certainly doesn't mean that on sexuality and gender oh god get that out of there oh the exclusivity of christ god of the bible obviously has never met a really cool mormon that made you uncomfortable didn't it because i actually said that that's what i'm saying why'd that make you uncomfortable oh you can be a oh this is exclusive chris come on man he obviously has not met my muslim neighbors they are good they're nicer than the christian people i know get that out of there so i've got a bible that lets me do whatever i want love this quote by keller another one that's under attack right now is the atoning work of jesus on the cross so an argument that's been around i mean gosh you can read about this stuff like third fourth century is that jesus's death on the cross is divine child abuse okay you can giggle at that but man that's catching on in the hearts of 20 year olds right now as they exit the back door of church jesus willingly lays down his life it is not taken from him the story is not divine child abuse the story is divine sacrifice but what's happened guys is we have not been serious about the word of god we have not trained up our children to understand or know it and now what's happening and i mean i'm not playing with you right now what's happened is they're scrolling tick tock and reels without much of our interaction at all and they're coming across one minute blurbs from an expert with an mdiv which i don't know how having an mdiv makes you smart and they're going actually the word homosexuality isn't in the original language at all and god would never actually what god is for this he's not against this and they're being discipled on their phone because we haven't given them the very things they need to survive to thrive and survive in exile this is deceit no atonement no exclusivity whatever gender sexuality things you want are all yours and they have effectively just made the bible thin and worthless tim keller says it this way now what happens if you eliminate anything from the bible that offends your sensibility and crosses your will if you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest how will you ever have a god who can contradict you you won't you'll have a god essentially of your own making and not a god with whom you can have a relationship or genuine interaction only if your god can say things that outrage you and make you struggle as in a real friendship or marriage will you know that you have gotten hold of a real god and not some figment of your imagination so an authoritative bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with god it is actually the precondition for it not good like if you if god never bothers you in the book it never presses any weight on you chances are the god that you're worshiping is a figment of your imagination certainly isn't the god of the bible again accusation deceit and then lastly death verse three talks about the dragon being read right so our first century brothers and sisters would have processed this next little bit a little different probably a lot like our iranian brothers and sisters right now when they see that the dragon's death they know they're not just talking about ah kind of look awkward loving jesus these days oh that was embarrassing no this is like death death this is like being killed being murdered and yet here's what the writer of hebrews tells us that jesus accomplished on our behalf this is hebrews 2 14-15 since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself being jesus likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death who are subject to lifelong slavery so the dragon intimidates with death but jesus has disarmed him by making death gain i know we don't like that goodness sakes we're westerners we're supposed to die when we're 97. and yet it's this freedom that makes us impervious to the attacks of the enemy isn't it like when you get steeping in this when you can spot the accusations reject the deceit and stand on the promises of god you can agree with the apostle like what can man do to me like what can you do to me what harm can befall me but if we don't even know that we've bought into the accusations we can't even see how we're deceived and we're terrified of far less than death i just don't think we're gonna be able to make the kind of noise that i'm hoping for us to make sunday morning attendance will not be enough for the fight we're in look at me sunday morning attendance wherever you are will not be enough for the fight that we're in robust discipleship robust ordering of our lives around the person and work and beauty of jesus christ a seriousness about spotting the accusations and deceit of the enemy and getting after it is required so here south lake will roll off in august and then it's just us again for the first time in 15 years it'll just be the village church flower mound it'll just be us again and um i know we're going to take our shots the enemy's got plans for us to harass to divide to attack to chisel to punch and i get it i mean we're in a fight you can expect to get punched in the head a couple times but dead gum and i want to swing back like i want us to cause some trouble like the day of belief without behavioral transformation has to be over i'm trying to call you into something here i'm trying to call you into what god is calling you into a life fully surrendered to him fully alive in him fully submissive to him willing to be odd and awkward and outside of what's seen as acceptable to make war against the one who has made war against us only he's the one with gates who's terrified we should not be but what's happened guys it's over a period of time without much suffering with an immaculate amount of wealth the enemies just going lay down no no it's okay it's all right shh there you go all right and i'm trying to wake you up trying to wake us up i've been saying for six months we were made for this moment you you paying attention these last six weeks like we're made for this moment it's not the people of god that should be on their heels and i think the reason why you're seeing the gospel explode in places where it's difficult is because they're dialed into the fact that they're at war and god help us many of us are still trying to find the right cruise ship like i know i know like even now like someone you're like oh gosh i didn't sign up for this sheesh brother i was feeling great until then i thought church was supposed to make me feel good all right bro i ain't here to make you feel good oh man i bet you if i go down the road there's a church that would just have better stuff for the kids and we did but great and i would just say i love you go like if what you want is super slides for your kids go get it i'm not even dogging that model listen we're in a consumeristic western culture i i totally get all that man the sermons are shorter gosh i like the music but oh man wouldn't it be great if this wouldn't be yeah yeah yeah yeah i have absolutely all of it i i'm looking for who wants to come with like i want to cause trouble i just want to see who wants to come with me like i just want to take some shots i want to cause darkness to be like dead gummy they woke up that's what i want and that's i can give my life to that i can't give my life to you liking my preaching and you like you know i can't give my life to i won't give my life to that so i'm i'm trying to invite you into this to fight the accuser with what's true to spot deceit even though it's going to cost us and to not fear death because to die is gain and i know all too well that a lot of you gonna leave here today and just put your head back down on your pillow and i just don't think it'll be too much longer until you take the off-ramp on the whole thing we will see in the weeks to come the journey that you and i are on it's not going to get easier it's going to get darker and as it gets darker power increases and so i get i get excited about that and so can seven of you and so hey and i'm being straight up if it's me and the seven of you let's go we got a giant building to fill we don't need that big building anymore so i'm inviting you in so what does that look like i'm like closed like this you got a spot the false accusations you got to spot them starting with you don't know how to pray and you can't read your bible and you don't know how to evangelize it's just freaking lies those things are not true about you you've decided they're true about you you've agreed with them which is why they have so much power in your life that's where we start and and then we repent of our deceits father i have believed wrongly i have been a coward i have cut pages out of your book forgive me and then begin to war with one another by praying and studying and singing and doing life deeply with one another or we can get our binky but i again we might have different personality i need to i need to swing a little bit let me pray father bless these men and women i do pray spirit of the living god that you would awaken us to the war that we're in that you would interrupt the satanic lullaby in this place and maybe as far as these sermons go that you would wake up your church that you would um stir her heart to worship and to fight that she'd be quickened with compassion and mercy and holy spirit power that she would steep in your word that she would take seriously the discipleship of her children that she would pray ferociously sing loudly and attack the enemy whose gates will not be able to prevent the coming of the kingdom i thank you that you have bounced the dragon now strengthen our hands as you enable us to make war against him we bless your name we need this renewal we need this revival your church does not just us the whole church in the west wake us up to it pour out your spirit do that thing you've done throughout history where you have just uh in an unusual way poured out your spirit renewed your church revived her witness and pushed back darkness violently we ask you to do this we submit our lives to you use us how you will in life and death use us it's for your beautiful name i pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 43,648

Rating: 4.8851438 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: NyMj_KU0fjE

Length: 43min 3sec (2583 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021