Revelation: Earthly Battle - Week 7 - 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 [Music] 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 good morning to those that are worshiping online it's so good to be with you this morning my name is larry and i recently retired from 50 years of working but i but i have not i have not retired from fighting the good fight of faith i have not retired from pressing on to the mark of the high calling of god in christ jesus my lord and that fight is what brought me to the village church you see you have to ask yourself when you near retirement what are you going to do for the kingdom beyond what you're doing now so the village church graciously graciously allowed this old guy to be part of the church planting program the church planting program has my friends that are planting new churches those that are replanting churches and they called me a revitalizer i do not know what a revitalizer is but i can tell you one thing he has revitalized me [Applause] you know when you ask yourself what you're going to do you have to always go back and say if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me so i encourage each of you to do that i encourage you to be one of those units that goes to the unreached people groups in the 10 40 window i encourage you to plant a church to replant a church or join me and my wife going to some rural church someplace that is in vast need i read this last week that there's 600 southern baptist churches that will close their doors that's a sad case and these rural areas are in deep deep need so i encourage you to fight the good fight and it's appropriate that we read this verse in revelations 13. and i'll start with verse 9 if anyone has an ear let him hear that's you and me we have to listen to this if anyone is to be taken captive to captivity he goes if anyone is to be slain with the sword with the sword must he be slain here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints blessed be the word of god thanks be to god for a second there i didn't know if i was preaching i thought okay i'll just go sit with my family we love us from larry as you can tell uh well if you have your bibles please do open up to chapter 13. like last week i want to kind of show you some things in the chapter uh as we uh walk through it as we dive in i i have this i have this memory of starting to go uh to church and uh them talking about the blood of the lamb and without a lot of context that that little phrase like wigged me out a little bit like i wasn't sure if i was like joining a cult are they about to bring a lamb out on if they kill something in this church i'm calling the police like i didn't have language for it and as i was getting ready for this week in particular i thought if you had no background in church and you just showed up today for the first time ever and i'm talking about dragons and beasts coming out of the sea and a beast coming out of the earth and a cosmic battle you might just think these people are insane uh and so what i want to do is just remind you of some of the things that we talked about week one in order to get us ready for today the first is that the book of revelation is primarily apocalyptic uh in its use of language uh that means it uses a lot of symbols and signs in order to help us understand imagery meant to provoke something in us that's hard to provoke without that the kind of imagery that god's giving us in the book so i loved this quote from daryl johnson we used it not the fullback daryl johnson for you old heads but uh the theologian not the same guy he said this in week one as we talked about this idea imagery has the power to hook us deep inside images can quickly and effectively convey that which we struggle to put into words imagery goes beyond the intellect and through the emotions into the imagination grabbing hold of us at the deepest recesses of our being imagery goes beyond the intellect and through the emotions into the imagination informing the intellect and igniting the emotions and so today as we talk about dragons and beasts i i just need you to know if you've got no background in church we don't we're not a group of people that actually thinks there's a literal dragon out waiting to kill us we do think there is an enemy out to destroy us and we think that if you would get to know and understand that enemy it would help you understand some of the heartache you've endured some of the disappointment you've walked in and some of the pain that you might have experienced in your life we believe there's a very real enemy uh that humankind is facing and and this book is meant to expose it for what it is right now as we dive in this week just to catch you up in the story remember revelation is not linear it's a series of windows and so we saw window one which was the throne room of god almighty christ on his throne ultimate reality everything flowing to that moving towards that that was window one window two was a series of trumpet blasts where god called the world to repentance and now you and i are in what's called the interlude it's the interlude between the trumpets and the bolts and in this interlude god is helping us understand our enemy and how our enemy works and so last week we looked at this on a cosmic scale uh we looked at the christmas story that wasn't much like the christmas story you and i grew up with and that plays back right to this idea that imagery provoked something in us that normal words don't like a dragon and a baby and war and the archangel mike all that provoked in you something other than just lighting a candle and singing silent night holy night that's the imagery doing its job and we're going to get more of that today the dragon satan makes war against the people of god this is what the verse said last week if you forgot in verse 17 that the dragon is enraged and pursues to destroy those who keep the commandments of god and hold on to the testimony of jesus now here's this week that was the cosmic battle here's what it looks like on the ground the dragon does not do this directly but but he calls out two beasts two monsters to help him and and these monsters along with the dragon form an unholy trinity that mimics the actual triune god of the universe the dragon seeks to be god the father the first beast seeks to be god the son and the third beast seeks to be god the holy spirit they mimic and mock and are a pathetic replacement for the actual triune god of the universe and so that's what we'll see today i want to introduce you to the beast by means of uh introduction and then we'll talk about what to do with it beast number one beast number one is found in verses one through ten beast number one comes up out of the sea comes up out of the ocean and this beast looks almost identical to the beast that we see in daniel chapter seven and so if you'll remember what we said week one there is nothing in revelation that the bible has not already said right that this is the people reading this in 96 right they they are hearing a lot of old testament that you and i aren't hearing because we just don't really know the old testament all that well but this looks very much like the beast in daniel chapter 7 right and and what the beast in daniel chapter 7 represents was the nations that ruled over the known world babylon persia mede and ultimately the greeks so the beast is the embodiment of all that was expressed in the four beasts in daniel 7. so the beast from the sea you ready here's here's enemy number one the beast from the sea is the state human kingdoms that have rejected the living god from the center of their lives at the time john is writing this beast is clearly manifesting as rome like we'll see this all the more clearly in revelation 17 when they're reading this in 96 they're thinking rome the beast is rome and they're not wrong it's just not only rome see before rome the beast had manifested in egypt in assyria in babylon john wants us to see that when a nation sets out to be their own master they turn bestial power that is no longer exercised under god seeks to play god jeremy power that no longer resides under god will seek to play god and they'll grow far more be steel than they will humane let me give you this quote again from daryl johnson john is opening up a sober unseen reality of the present governments which step out from under the rule of god do not become more divine they become demonic governments that exalt humanity as the measure of all things do not become more humane they become more bestial john highlights that in the middle of this nations states they become more demonic and more beastial that these things are a part of how the dragon wages war against the people of god they also if you read the passage this week or if you glance down at it you can see that this beast gets a mortal wound and yet has a kind of faux mimicking resurrection that makes everybody put in awe and we know this because this beast is hard to kill we killed it in world war ii as we launched out against the nazis and it just came right back as communism and then the the battle of communism still kind of rages on probably more in-house now than outhouse but uh but then now you you have all sorts of other totalitarian regimes that have popped up and guys you might hate me for this but you better start praying for our country better start praying for our country if you can't pop your eyes up and see that this ain't somebody from across the pond right now that i'm really anxious for our future look at verse four because verse four it tells you what the end game is verse four and they worshipped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast and they worshipped to the beast saying who is like the beast and who can fight against it so this is important to know and this helps us see when this is happening the purpose of the beast is not merely the exercise of political power that's not the end game the objective is capturing the loyalties of men and women and diverting them away from the worship of god the way this beast fights us is not necessarily by throwing us into jail or killing us or hard-pressing us it simply wants us to worship the state it simply wants to pull our loyalty away from jesus and put it on something that can not help us or ultimately save us this is the game and he's good at it i'm telling you he's good he is so subversive and good that it won't even feel like this is happening like the devil knows what he's doing like if i were to walk up to you right now and go in two minutes i'm going to walk up from you i'm going to tap you on the show i'm going to punch you right in your head now wouldn't you at least now know this dude might punch me in the head so my dad i don't know if your dad made you watch movies with him on sunday afternoon there was a movie uh called billy jack i know anybody watch this movie okay sorry i just lost every millennial in here and down so billy jack was the story of a native american man who had come back from serving in vietnam and his wife ran this little school and some rednecks that's the best i know to do uh they're like making life miserable so billy jack's gonna handle some business and there's this scene the scene in billy jack where he's talking to one of the running like what are you going to do and he's like tell you what i'm going to do take this left foot right here i'm going to put it across the right side of your face i'm going to grab him i'm going to break his neck take that dude's leg off i'm gonna beat him to death with that guy's life and then like you're like every i mean all day i mean you're watching the movie they're like yeah i mean are you he's like god pop a pie and he does it and you're like oh my gosh billy jack is amazing now the enemy's not going to work this way the enemy is not going to look at me it's going to sound right good god did you not see this in 25 freaking pulpits meant to point to jesus pointed to the state like listen to me this is the beast and it just felt right oh yeah because look at all this oh my gosh this is going to happen and gosh some of that is happening because they know better right this is what the beast does so listen be discretionary where you place your hope guys just be i'm not i'm not trying to turn you into a cynic like i'm not trying to turn you like we should not be cynical we if anybody should not be cynical it's us but be careful but the state isn't the only way the dragon seeks to destroy the children of god that brings me to beast two this is found in verses 11 through 18 and then it hits right out of the gate there's not a lot of transitionary sentences it just starts to describe so we see right out of the gate that the purpose of the second beast is to get people to worship the first beast so the second beast seeks to get people to trust follow and worship political power that has moved out from under god he performs great signs creates an image of the first beast gives breath to it the second beast makes it very difficult for anyone who's not bowed down to the first he can kill those who don't worship the image he puts a mark on the people mirroring the lamb yet again makes it extremely difficult to buy sell do business with the world unless they take on the mark of the beast which we're going to get to and are you so excited about that in revelation 16 19 and 20 this beast is called the false prophet if the beast from the sea is dragon manipulated political power the beast from the earth is dragon manipulated religious power in institutions true prophets lead people to the worship of the living god that's what they do false prophet this one in particular leads people to a worship of the state where the beast the beast this beast it's advocating putting your hope in human means and institutions that's all he does like put your hope in these institutions this will save you this will win the day this is what's best for your grandchildren this is what right this is these this is the second beast the second beast also likes to encourage a compromise agreement between us and the culture again this is that and you're seeing this right now with all the deconstruction i mentioned last week where it's like no god really i don't think god really said that i mean holy 1912. there's no way the god of the bible actually believes that no he does right this is the just compromise this compromise maybe we can make christianity pretty for people wouldn't it be great if we were cool if they saw us like oh man they're not that bad now that this is the second beast negotiating a compromise now it's important to note that we don't fight this beast by studying these beasts you fight these beasts by knowing the real thing right so so back to week three and centering worship and the throne room of god the the way that you and i stand firm and are able to spot the activities of this beasts both of these beasts is to look at the real thing so that we can spot the counterfeit this is how our agents they find counterfeit bills it's not that they know about every way of counterfeiting if they know the real thing so well that they can spot a fake they know the real thing so well that they can spot a fake they know the real thing so well they know the nature the beauty the character the the the majesty of jesus so well that they can look at other things to go pathetic substitute for the real thing right this is how we spot the beast so then how then shall we live by the way that was my intro you're going to be fine i've already done this once it's fine um when i when i first said hey we're going to do we're gonna do revelation the number one question i got was about the mark of the beast literally number one do you think it's the vaccine pastor are they gonna are they gonna like you know put a chip or are we just waiting for them to put a chip in like my hand and my fort again you're into me smarter than that like right if it really was like that i mean honestly like if all of a sudden the like from the the highest place in government they were like without this chip in your forehead you cannot do any business like how are any of us deceived by that you're like nice try sucker i've read the passage like the enemy ain't coming at us like that he's he's better than i mean whatever you can imagine uh as a kind of insurgency against the people of god he's better than that he ain't coming at us clean like that god that'd be wouldn't that be amazing oh yeah no i'm not gonna it's not your phone now you should get off that phone but it ain't your phone it's not listen when we need and this is this i'm going somewhere with this 666 is a symbol it's not a code to be cracked right so let me let me explain that to you six is one less than the number seven you're welcome i did all that work for you you don't have to dig into the text you're gonna have to grab a commentary just my little gift to you today there's seven and then right behind that is six or before that depending on how you're counting now seven in the bible is the number of completeness six is therefore incomplete sixth in is the number of incompleteness now this is important remember the best the beast can do is mimic it's the best the beast can do it can mimic and we know that because we've already gazed upon the heavens in fact these beasts are parodies of the god we already see so like the the second beast is a what it's like a mangy lamb it ain't the lamb of glory not the lion lamb it's this pathetic janky lamb like john in a way is kind of jabbing at these beasts going really you're trying to mimic oh yeah like this little pathetic minor little baby resurrection that this resurrection ain't ruling and reigning over the entire cosmos like john's jabbing here a little bit he's mocking here a little bit so the best either beast can do is mimic he's a six now why three sixes well because three is also a number for completeness in the bible so look at me he's completely incomplete how awesome is that now where are you going to be branded with this number glad you asked you're not you're not no one's going to implant anything into you nobody's going to brand you then i know those were really scary shows that came out in the 70s there's no guillotine coming for you right what is this talking about the the hand and the forehead are unbelievably significant when it comes to how god molds and forms his people if you remember the the shema you remember the shema where they've got the law of god written and they would wear it on their floor the law of god written on their hand the law of god on their gates on their door everywhere when they rose when they woke they were looking at the law it's about ideology and action when we're talking about the mark of the beast we're talking about internal character made manifest in behavior some of you are living out the mark of the beast right now you already got it on you it's some future branding it's you not being serious about holiness you holding hands with sin you not being serious about the kingdom of god that's the mark of the beast [Applause] gk beale says it this way and then we've got to have a talk the forehead represents ideological commitment and the hand the practical outworking of that commitment so i'm gonna do something you're not supposed to do we're gonna talk about politics real quick family meeting that means right wing and left-wing ideology are both sixes so let's chat republican ideology is like your dad suck it up make your bed clean up after yourself and the democrats are like your mom oh baby come here no get in here listen just take all of it it's just yours you don't have to don't he he no you're luck just all of you don't have to do anything listen i'm not lying this is and maybe maybe you can't hear me right now because you're like bro my mom was going suck it up my dad was like baby hold me baby hold me let's hold each other maybe that's the house you grew up here i don't know look at me you're gonna hate this but i'm gonna love you enough the right is correct to a point and then they serve the dragon and the left is right to a point and then they serve the dragon you might hate that and i hate that you hate that but that's the truth and if our nation won't repent let me just let me make it smaller if the church of jesus christ in this nation will not repent will not be long until we're on the trash heap with every great nation that came before us and something new will rise to the surface now one of the reasons i'm trying to push this right is i want to see massive repentance among the people of god a waking up to the reality that we're in so so what do we do because you're like okay great what what what what okay let's go look at our text again revelation 13 10. if anyone is to be taken captive to captivity he goes if anyone is to be slain with the sword with the sword must he be slain here is a call for the endurance and the faith of the saints this is yet again he is referencing jeremiah here and he's referencing jeremiah in a way that's provoking us not to fight with the weapons that these two beasts fight with so do you remember this this is a shadow even of jesus saying to peter put away your sword he who lives by the sword dies by the sword so i was in a member meeting after my uh acts 13 kind of political exclamation point back in in november and a member in a member meetings like so we're not going to resist and i said no we're going to freaking resist oh we're going to resist heart i just think we might not resist like you think we're going to resist oh we're going to resist we're going to resist in a massive way like like this is john this is jesus saying to us we won't use their weapons against them yet lest we become them and then what's the call faithful endurance so let's talk about that so i said last week last week was fun for me last week i just went in and and then the amount of feedback i got from you by like let's go i'm in i'm with you pastor but here here's the thing i i hadn't even said what that looks like yet so here's what i know that's just all adrenaline and adrenaline don't make for war winning right doesn't make for war winning no no no you you need a heartbeat for war winning you need endurance for war winning and you can get hyped up for the first round or two anybody play sports going to that pre-game speech you're like whoa five minutes later you don't know about that speech anymore you like you just you're like this guy's bigger stronger i'm getting my tail kicked it don't matter so we i i'm trying to whip up adrenaline it doesn't go anywhere we're not going to need a drilling we need something else and so here here's what i want to do i want to talk about what faithful endurance looks like and if you really want to fight you you real like you want to even like today throw your first right hook or if you're a lefty left hook whatever maybe you're a jabber i don't know your left foot across it whatever you want to do it we're going to talk about what that might look like so so here's the image this whole time i'm like you want to fight me and make some trouble here's how we're supposed to make trouble all right so so here's the first one what are the weapons of our warfare the first one is a serious pursuit of holiness a serious pursuit of holiness look at me holiness is hating sin and loving righteousness holiness is hating sin and loving righteousness and when i talk about hate i'm talking about violence against sin our sin not to become an expert in other people's sin which we excel at no our sin my sin and let me tell why what let me tell you just i i'm sorry i i've been saying that i got to go i want you to come that means i've got to say some hard things some of you are just like baggage you've got secret indwelling sin that you have hidden for decades you're already shackled and put up what good are you in the fight god you're so overwhelmed by darkness addicted to porn you had some sort of weird affair 20 years ago you won't let anybody know you're just hoping to take it to your grave you're like if i were to confess the stuff in my whole world would burn to the ground that ain't your world bro you're living a mirage hey life like you want to fight you act violently towards your sin how do you do that best you confess it you drag it into the light and that's your first shot across the bow now you're a problem and if you're like well brother man man if man if this my spouse was to find this out or this out man if my kids found out that yeah it could be a train wreck i'm not listen i'm i ain't naive i've been doing this 20 years bro i get it sis i get it but like right now you're just totally in bondage totally locked out of the fight to like do you know what it would feel like to just get it off of you you know what your problem you are to the enemy just with that just the confession of sin your sin like that that in and of itself is that that's like a declaration of war against it like i will not you will not you will have no place in my home anymore and you root it out you drag it into the light darkness loses power in the light doesn't mean the journey's not easy like if you think about escaping prison like if you were locked away in some deep terrible jungle you had to escape and you had to make your way to freedom think of the cost of that that's what you but you're going to get free i'm telling you some of you are no problem at all you're just baggage so you're constantly worried about this or complaining about that not in the fight at all but complaining about the people who are in the fight and that's why i keep trying to create an off-ramp every week i love you i want you with me but here's where we're going so man just you live in dallas there's a billion churches in seven square miles but here i don't know man here i i ain't got much time i want to fight i want us to fight remember i want us to be a problem that that means you have got to be serious about sin even things that you think are cute little puppy sense you know that first day that you get i've got to hurry you get that puppy like oh my gosh this puppy's amazing and then he destroys your couch and takes a dump on your your bed is that too far i'm out i need you to put a bullet in that puppy too much is that too much michael give me a ruling from the elders okay got a thumbs up from the elders i'm still good still have a job need you to put it to death guys look at me there are no small sins just sins that are waiting to destroy everything you're serious about loving that's why i'm trying to wake you up to the fight you're actually it's not a puppy it's it's a like it's trying to destroy you so so how then how do we do this i love this quote it's from tim chester body oman in england the difference between the person who grows in holiness and the one who doesn't is not a matter of personality upbringing or gifting the difference is what each has planted into the soul of his or her heart and soul so holiness isn't a mysterious spiritual state that only an elite few can reach it's more than an emotion or a resolution or an event look at that last sentence holiness is a harvest gosh i love that like what are you sowing into your life what are the seeds that every day you're dropping into your soul that in time they might produce a harvest of holiness i've got some thoughts on this how you cultivate a life of holiness how you sow these seeds the first i already mentioned we confess our sins like luther said in his first resolution that the life of the christian is one of ongoing confession and repentance this is our primary weapon i will not give sin a foothold in my life no matter how embarrassing second thing i think guys i don't want to be this guy you've got to pay attention to how you're spending your time like i keep wanting to use this phrase with you like marinating in your own mediocrity i feel like you guys might think i hate so i love netflix netflix is a gift of god's grace it's also a demonic passy just like put that in your mouth and just let you go to sleep you're fine like i ain't got no time that's wild you just binge seven seasons of this i know man but they hooked me oh they did oh they did hook you just the reason we do the institute the reason we have core classes the reason we're doing these things guys is to to strengthen your knowledge of who he is the reason we put you in groups is to stir up devotion to one another all these things we're doing these they're they're acts of war organizationally we're inviting you into to help what are your inputs are you biblically serious and then here's something i've done it's one of my favorite it's one of the best things i ever did as a young pastor i was 28 and and i just started setting up groups of men who are in proximity to me and asking them to guard over my life you see me say something from the stage that i don't live out for my life my expectation is you come talk to me about it so man i've got two sets i've got a set of friends that's inside um that my my work they're pastors of this church the couple of them in this room right now another couple have left this church but man i've got four guys they see me almost every day we text multiple times every day and those brothers have been charged you see inconsistency in me i want to hear about it and then i've got another group of friends that are not on staff but i do play a lot with them if you will we like to get out to the brazos river and mess around we like to and and i want them i'm like guard me guard my heart watch me i'm prone to wonder lord i feel it prone to leave the god i love just hit me in fight with me whatever lane you need a little platoon you need to invite somebody and i need you to watch my life i'll have blind spots but if you don't invite him in people are scared of conflict or they love conflict and both of them are bad right like you're not asking me be real nitpicky about my life i'd like you to watch any little detail that i said i want you to immediately bounce on me that brother doesn't have the temperament for the trade no do you love me will you guard my flank will you come with me on this sisters brothers we need this so the second thing if the first is a serious pursuit of holiness the the second i'm not going to spend long on it because we've talked about it throughout this series is prayer and worship one of the more underrated weapons that you have been given by god against the enemy is prayer fasting and worship and it's telling that one of the things the church really stinks at by and large is prayer worship and fasting and i'm when i'm talking about worship i ain't talking about music you're tracking with me i think music can be a big part of it but remember from week three worship is a tension how do i fix my attention on how do i order my life that my intention is on him that's worship but praying worshiping so listen and here's where i wanna like when people are like all you're gonna do is pray let's do something but men according to this passage that sounds like the beast human effort human now i'm not saying we don't do we do but we first pray right we're like nehemiah building the wall 40 days praying fasting shows up to the king uh want to go rebuild the walt sure what do you need i've got a long list been thinking about it there's all this stuff on any of these letters i need this community man i need spending i need this many and now let's go so pray fasting action go right we pray we worship let me give you this quote and then i'll land on the last one and i'm doing better than i thought this is from see peter wagner god's purpose may be thwarted or it may be accomplished depending to one degree or another on the obedience of his people and their willingness to use the weapons of spiritual warfare that he has provided god is powerful enough to win any battle but he has designed things so that the release of his power at any given moment of time is often contingent upon the decisions and the actions of his people a principal weapon of spiritual warfare is prayer not just routine or mediocre prayer but prayer powerful enough to move god's hand in order to determine the destiny of a whole nation now you might we talked about this last week you might be like gosh i don't i don't know how to pray like that and i'm just going ah i think you do god i don't know how to pray like that i would love to pray in such a way that it moved your hand and i joined you in what you were accomplishing in my day oh my gosh look at you you are a prayer warren freak right it is that easy and it's only you believing the lie of the enemy that's saying it's not doesn't jesus go who needs eloquent speech doesn't even rebuke that in praying like don't do it like that don't do it like wise and eloquent he's like no no just basic help please that's a big time prayer in god's economy right you ain't got to know the greek there's no thou shouts if you don't want to throw those in there it's just you having a conversation with god so we're going to pray and worship and fast we're going to pursue holy we're going to put a bullet in sin in our lives and then lastly we're going to practice hospitality now i know i i'm not dogging so if you just heard joanna gaines there we're not hearing each other although practicing hospitality might have some peonies on the table with some votives some little candles in it maybe some baking bread when they came in maybe but that look at me that's more entertainment i'm not talking about entertaining i'm talking about hospitality see uh entertainment oftentimes has more to do with the host than the guest doesn't it you're like oh yeah this is our four year yeah we built that for the kids this is for dinner tonight i just got you oh listen opus 106. it's gonna blow your mind right it has more to do with the host than the one who's joined in hospitality looks like this and just because you're not gonna like it matthew 5 43-47 you have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy but i tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous if you love those who love you what reward will you get are not even the tax collectors doing that and if you greet only your own people what are you doing more than others do not even the pagans do that so the the idea of hospitality specifically hospitality as the bible defines it is welcoming the stranger and and you and i have just been immersed in stranger danger our whole lives right do you remember like i i'm part of that last generation that got to play outside literally i don't my parents had no idea where i was most of the day that didn't make them bad parents it was just that day anybody else grow up in that it's like be back when it's dark we're gonna let our kids out front you play in the backyard behind the barbed wire the machine gun nests and keep this phone on you put that right i mean you're like what in the world but that was the generator it was just like go play and that's over now like we've just been through every crime podcast show movie it's like someone's gonna kill my kid and so it's just and i mean i'm not advocating not i'm not advocating being an idiot right it's like here just running the streets get but but we're terrified and biblical hospitality is hospitality a welcoming of the stranger or maybe even the enemy and there's no space for that and like because i think these two beasts have done such a number on us in our day that just sounds it just sounds unreasonable i love this quote by stephen rhodes hospitality when you get it right down to it is unnatural it is difficult to place others first because our inclination is to take care of ourselves first hospitality takes courage it takes a willingness to risk but as our lord reminds us if we only love those who we are sure will love us and welcome those who will welcome us then we have done little to share the love of god for as jesus says even the heathen do that you see most of us know what true hospitality feels like it means being received openly warmly freely without any need to prove ourselves hospitality makes us feel worthy because our host assumes we are worthy this is the kind of hospitality that we have experienced from god and all that god asks is that we go and do likewise particularly to the alien among us how do we make war against the beasts not with their weapons not with violence not with shaming not with mocking not with belittling no that is not how we make war to do so would be to join the beast in what they're doing to become like them what's our call faithful endurance what does it look like it looks like confession of sin guys it looks like there'd be no space for it and you'll you just violently john owen one of my favorite puritans right be killing sin or it'll be killing you that's what's that's what the stakes are for you to get that i'm going to confess i'm going to repent i'm going to fill my life with worship and prayer and fasting like that's going to be a normal part of my everyday life and it looks like hospitality it looks like dining room tables with with people that are different than us sitting around them that we might show them the love of god that we have received as his people now all of this must be woven into the makeup of our lives the this is i can't say it enough this is not adrenaline i can't ra raw you up every week to go out and try to live righteously that's not what this is even meant to do and i i know that many of you have experienced this already where you do go i'm gonna do it i'm gonna go get it and then you just like go out and like three weeks later you're getting your face punched in again this needs to be woven into our lives and this is what i keep saying that the reason that the village church exists in this local entity is to help shape and call this up and train and release you to do these things like god's got to call on your life keep telling you guys this like i said like something my call you've got a call on your life i'm not we're in ministry i'm not in the fight we're in the fight but but man you have got to want that more than you want your sin you have got to want that more than you want to worship at an ideology that it's only a six and so i'm i'm just here going i'm i want to come this is where we're headed and then i do i love you i don't want anybody to ever feel shame about this i don't do something just not there it's like i just can't see i'm just not there i just then i love you this is where we're going so you can hang on with us but this is where we're headed we're gonna organize this way execute this way preach this way train this way release this way hold accountable this way celebrate this way rejoice this way together and keep calling sin sin keep calling us to holiness keep training you to share the gospel and to live righteously in a world that's growing more and more perverse we're going to point out these two beasts as often as we see them we're going to try to point them out in here as well as out there or seek to be faithful to the king of kings and lord of lords because we look right at me and i'm done we were made for this moment you can go back to sleep i can't let's pray father bless these men and women i know it's a lot today i know i've been hot i just pray that that no offense lands for any other reason except the offense of the gospel i pray specifically and particularly for my brothers and sisters who are just bound and caged some in some far off country no threat to the enemy at all weak chained enslaved to their sin to a past shame [Music] to a faux present moment that's all a lie because of the darkness that they were complicit with at some point pray for supernatural holy spirit courage today i pray for the first time ever something that's been hidden that they've never shared with anyone someone that they so desperately they just want to make it to the grave with it do you confront that lie spirit of living god will you will you just break open those shackles i pray that hanging on to darkness until death would stop being the goal and the willingness to step into the light at a shot of real freedom real life fullness of life now that the enemy would take so many different shots to the head this morning as men and women come forward and they just say this this is back there i it has been gnawing at me for a decade i have never shared this with anybody i need it off me and that you would meet them with your peace you'd meet them with compassion you'd meet them with your healing power pray for those even this morning that are enslaved even now to the dragon the worship of the dragon one beast or another has captivated their worship distracted them from what's true i just pray you receive our repentance this morning continue to ask that you wake us up that you put some fire in our belly against the enemy and then we'd be a big problem to him i just pray that all sorts of alarms and bells would be going out among principalities and powers just kind of a wicked oh no what are we gonna do and that you just unleash the power of your spirit through these men and women to the ends of the earth i can't do that i can't preach that into being we can't organize that into being you and you alone spirit of living god you'll have to ignite our souls for the beauty of jesus it's for your beautiful name i pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 36,463

Rating: 4.9567566 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: 73XBnq3d6YA

Length: 49min 45sec (2985 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021