Sermons - Matt Chandler - A Home in Jesus

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 [Music] so [Music] well good morning if you have your bibles go ahead and grab those we're going to be in john chapter 7 that's going to be our anchor text and then from there we're going to look at some passages uh in chapter eight and so my hope uh today and our time together is to just look at uh chapter seven and eight uh and see what's going on in the life of jesus as we look at his life and marvel at who he is and enter into the promises uh that he has for us and so i'm excited to dive into this passage these two passages if you if you had commentaries uh on a computer program or on your shelves uh could be called uh whether they could be called the debate chapters or uh the conflict chapters and what's happening in seven and eight or there are these back and forth debates between the pharisees sadducees uh and and rulers uh religious rulers of the day and jesus and jesus is redefining success he is um he is confronting legalism he is confronting elitism he he makes a run and confronts at um secularism and then he rounds it out around this argument around class or he confronts classism and so when this is going on uh his disciples who are who are growing fragile uh as animosity builds against jesus christ hears jesus at the feast make this unbelievable promise and it's that promise that we're going to camp on and then we're going to look at how that promise plays itself out practically in our time together today and so if you have your bibles john chapter 7 we're going to pick it up in verse 37 on the last day of the feast the great day jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his listen out of his heart will flow rivers of living water and so here's here's the promise a couple of things i want to point out jesus is standing up and he's crying out right there's an angst in his soul there's a zeal in his heart and and what is it that he's crying out he's crying out listen if you're thirsty if you're thirsty if you're if you're longing for more if you know that this life than you're in is not the life that you've been designed if you've got some inkling that there's more if you're thirsty then come to me and then listen to the promise because because this th this promise here is one that i think has been lost on many of us for a long time and i hope by the grace of god to try to start to rescue some of it today right he says if you will believe in me as the scriptures have said then then what happens look back at the passage out of his heart will flow rivers of living water now this is not the first time that we've heard this phrase rivers of living water uh we heard it in john chapter 4 when jesus came to the woman at the well and he talked about springs of living water bursting forth from her soul so you have this woman who who was ashamed this woman whose life was a wreck and jesus says if you come to me if you drink the water that i have then springs of living water the phrase theirs will burst forth and and now in this passages they will flow they will flow from our hearts streams of living water will flow now now here's here's here's what we know about this in verse 39 it becomes clear that this is a reference to the holy spirit that to believe will mean the the holy spirit this is verse 39 i'm not reading into the passage verse 39 is going to let us know that this stream of living water that's going to flow from us is the holy spirit that is not just given once in regards to its flow it's not a one-time gift and then he takes it back but but over and over and over again the holy spirit's going to flow through us we never lose him it's just the water builds and flows from us but really the the point that i want to emphasize um today and then we're going to take a look at what this means practically is that i think for many of us our christian life not all of us but for many of us our christian life is marked far more by defeat than it is victory and here's what i mean we you cannot out preach or over preach the cross of jesus christ and the atoning work of jesus christ for our sins if i preach that every sunday for the rest of my life in every message that would not be a waste of time but jesus here is not just promising the forgiveness of sins he is promising life that burst forth from the innermost parts of who we are and flows for all of our days see i i think that there is a way that moralistic deism seeps into the life of the believer as much as we would say we want to hate it as much as we would go i'm not trying to earn it i'm resting in what was freely given to me by god in christ as much as we want to do that our lives are far more marked by oh i blew it again let me go ask for forgiveness oh man i blew it again let me go ask for forgiveness oh man i blew it again let me go ask for forgiveness then it is marked by a heart that has rivers of living water bursting forth out of it and jesus's invitation is are you thirsty come to me and if you come to me and if you believe in me like the scriptures say then at that point boom rivers of living water bursting forth and flowing all the days of our lives in fact i would even argue unto eternity right that eternity would begin that moment that we believe as the scriptures have said it's who christ is and then now we've got rivers of living water flowing out of our hearts so here's here's what we've got to answer i think i think we've got to go okay okay what does that look like what does that mean and so here's here's my outline we're going to look at a picture of how this begins we're going to look at a promise that should root us in a life that can celebrate these rivers of living water and then lastly we're going to look at our place in regards to uh this river continuing continuing to flow and so that's right three peas clean alliteration you can take the baptist out of the boy uh well no that i don't know how the phrase works uh never mind uh it's it's my roots my baptist roots that has me with three p's today and so here's what i wanna start with i wanna look at a picture of how this begins how does it begin where rivers of living water flow from us that they were not marked by defeat but were marked by life in his name we're marked by the life of christ in us well let me show you how we all began look at um chapter 8 starting at verse 2. early in the morning he came again to the temple all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them the scribes and the pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law moses commanded us to stone such a woman so what do you say this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him and jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground and as they continue to ask him he stood up and said to them let him who was without sin throw the first stone at her at once more he bent down and began to write on the ground but when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and jesus was a left was left alone with the woman standing before him and jesus stood up and said to her woman where are they has no one condemned you she said no one lord and jesus said neither do i condemn you go and from now on sin no more so so this is a picture of how we all begin this is a picture if if like uh the dam breaks and the rivers begin to flow so uh lorne and i with some friends we have some property out on the brazos river and the level of the flow of water is completely controlled by what happens with possum kingdom damn if someone were to come and blow up possum kingdom damn rivers would the river would go from like uh 300 cfs to just flooding out uh the place where we are and this is what's happening in this moment the rivers of living water are dammed up they they can't get through there in bondage if you will and in this moment forgiveness is going to be granted the dam is going to burst forth and river is going to flow out uncontained wild washing away what is death and establishing what is life there's so much going on in this story i think you see the story of religion versus relationship with god uh see the pharisees here they're not concerned with this woman they're using her as a prop uh let me just point out how wrong all of this is one where's the man the the law that they quoted in the law of moses it was not just for the woman the law was that both the man and the woman were to be tried right but where's the man they they didn't grab the man at all see also that they've grabbed this woman to test jesus they have no concern with her redemption no concern with her soul no concern with rivers of living water bursting forth from inside of us they want condemnation they want her stuck in her shame that gives them power over her if she's stuck in her shame and jesus refuses to play the game in fact if you notice he doesn't answer them at first he bends down he starts to draw on the ground and they persist they keep asking him and so he finally answers and he says to them let the one of you that's not guilty of any sin let them be the one to to hit this woman with the first stone and then the bible says he goes right back down he starts to to draw in the dirt and then from the oldest to the youngest they drop their rocks and leave and then i love this uh i want you to try to get your mind around this i know this hard force like here's this woman caught in the act of adultery like like just so ashamed knows she's probably about to die a mob has grabbed her drug her and set her in the middle right do you remember where they were where where are they if you look back at verse 2. they're at the temple in the early morning so the only thing i even know to maybe get your head around this is you caught in the act of adultery on a sunday morning and some right wingers grab you and drag you to the village half naked and throw you in the middle of the crowd and say hey the law says this is what should be done to this woman this is what just happened to this woman and now here everything's everybody's gone there's nobody left and jesus walks up to her and here's this is astonishing this is where the dam breaks it's not what were you thinking it's not what happened it's not did you not know the law it it he immediately just asks her a question woman where are they has no one condemned you right so jesus won't pile on to the shame that the woman is feeling he doesn't add to her brokenheartedness in this moment and who knows if she's brokenhearted because she was caught or because she actually was committing adultery all we know is she's on the ground there's snot and tears and pain and embarrassment and what does jesus say he doesn't take this moment to coach her in life's principles no he says where are they your accusers where are they as has no one condemned you and then i love her response her response shows this little inkling of belief no one lord that's it it's the only words we have of this woman in the entire passage no one lord right right master no one master and then look at what he says neither do i condemn you go and from now on sin no more now some things i want to point out here one this is the moment where the dam breaks this is the moment where full free and forever forgiveness is granted to this woman right neither do i i don't condemn you now go and sin no more so he doesn't sugarcoat what she's done although he's not gonna dog pile on the shame he's not going to call sin something other than what it is sin he's not going to call rebellion something that's uh he didn't go don't struggle anymore right don't trip up and fall anymore right you're forgiven but go and don't sin anymore now let me ask you a question do you think this woman for the rest of her life never sinned again no i mean of course she did she might not have ever committed adultery again but but surely she's going to fall short of the glory of god again and yet in this moment by the grace of god in the mercy of jesus does no one condemn you neither do i neither do i listen in this season that we are in i know many of you are coping in ways that that are not struggles they are sin you are coping in ways that aren't okay they are rebellion against god on high and you need to remember where you began what does it look like to have rivers of life flowing out of our souls where it begins in this moment this is the picture christ found us while we were at our worst and he says has no one condemned you neither do i and then let me give you the power via the holy spirit to walk in victory now go and sin no more so that's a picture of what we're talking about here now let's look at the promise we've got this picture of how we live a life marked by the life of christ inside of us now let's look at the promise this is in john 8 31-32 let's look at this together so jesus said to the jews who had believed in him if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free now this is the second of three times in the gospel of john we see this word abide the word abide literally means to make your home in right to abide to remain to stay like this is your home where do you live this is my home right so if you will make your home in my word look at the promise you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free we saw this same language of making your home in me uh we saw it back in chapter six we see it here in chapter eight and we'll see it again in chapter 15 like 16 times in chapter 15 right this idea of make your home in me abide in my word and so here let's talk for a second what does it look like to make your home in his word it might look a little different than you think certainly it looks like fidelity to jesus's clear teachings in the bible about church about home and about the world so this is what it looks like fidelity to the revealed word of god that we hold in our hands what does it look like to abide to make my home in jesus it means that i'm i've got fidelity to his revealed word when the word of god says this is how you approach your wife this is how you live with your children this is how you handle your money here's how you guard your heart here's how you i'm listening and i'm even if i struggle with it don't understand it i'm saying i'm gonna make my home in you jesus is not a hotel he is a home and i think one of the reasons many of us don't live the kind of victorious life that christ has called us into we can feel life in our guts as jesus is far more hotel than than he is home so think about a hotel right you check into a hotel you don't really take care of anything in the hotel you you're there for a night maybe and then you go on and and you won't be there long until you want to get back home and here he said no no you've got to make my home here so that would be um one of the ways but let's talk about what it would look like maybe spatially so what this means to abide in his word i would say it looks like this we make the decision we're not looking for electricity to shoot down from heaven into our guts we make the decision to set aside time to listen to consider to let the spirit of god speak to us work in us convict us we spend time with others who value this also um we spend time alone with jesus and his word so as much as we want to see you connect with one another and connect and do life deeply in community without solitude with jesus you will always ask too much of your community like the best small group in the world cannot replace the wholeness of jesus christ in fact a small group can come become a hotel just like a church service can right what we need is solitude with god i want to be i'm going to abide i'm going to make my home in your word i'm going to read the bible i'm going to pray i'm going to wrestle with you over there i'm going to submit to them to be faithful to it and then i need to do life with these people who are wanting to do the same thing we're going to grow together we're going to grow an intimacy together and love for jesus together and that's part of what this looks like in fact you see a picture of this in verse 2 of this chapter look at this early in the morning he came again to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them listen this very thing can happen this very day like when i wake up early in the morning at my house and i at our kitchen island open up my bible and open up my journal verse 2 is happening the spirit of christ jesus is revealing to me from the word of god what is true what is right what is good he is anchoring me in his goodness and grace he is becoming all the more a home for me he's addressing different closets that we need to straighten up he's looking at so you know this part of the yard that needs to be torn up and replanted he's wanting to celebrate that hey this thing that we planted a couple years ago it's actually starting to bloom right those floors that we replaced how enjoyable are they now he wants to do all of that and verse two is available to you and me anytime we'd quiet our spirit and come into the presence of jesus and abide remain make our home in his word now look at the see now we haven't even really got to the promise yet we've still got the the invitation look at look at the promise here and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free so to know jesus christ is to know the truth he is ultimate reality you tracking with me are you with me jesus is ultimate reality to make your home in him is to be set free from the tyranny of satan sin and death we're given new hearts in him right we have been set free now so watch how these things start to connect rivers of flowing water bursting forth well how does that happen right well we experience the forgiveness of god's grace and now we make our home in him we abide in him we have fidelity to his word spatially we're creating space to be with him and enjoy him and hear from him and respond to him and worship him and in that moment we will know the truth and the truth will set us free bondage will be broken right the the old patterns of i blew it again let me confess i blew it again make me confess so that the whole of your christian life is not celebrating life but consistently limping back and confessing again limping back and confessing again no no you will know the truth and the truth will set you free but how does that happen when you make your home in him when you make your home in him as long as jesus is your hotel and not your home i think your christian life will be marked by a lot of disappointment a lot of is this all there is but once he becomes the home you will know the truth and the truth will set you free you feel bound you feel stuck you feel i'm asking the question is jesus your hotel is it some i mean it's just a place you got to stop by you're not going to stay you're certainly going to live there and then you're going to head on home that's not the invitation is no no make your home abide in my word and then lastly we see our place it's just a continued chipping away of how we see ourselves look at uh john 8 34-36 jesus answered them truly truly i say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever so if the son sets you free you will be free indeed so a couple of things i want to draw your attention to one is your rightful place the passage doesn't say that everyone who sins is a slave to sin it's not what the passage says look at it again look back at verse 34. truly truly i say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin and so here's where i'm trying to help you reframe maybe how you're thinking about your life right now so it's one thing to practice sin to orient your life around a compulsion or around a sinful pattern that you're giving yourself over to i'm going to practice sin there's no remorse for sin there's no other than i wish i couldn't do it but i don't want to fight to kill it so to practice sin is actually just to give yourself over to it i think it's usually believing the lies of the enemy that you're just wired like that or you're just gonna struggle like that or or tied to some deep whisper in your soul about how you're not worthy of that or how you're worthless or how you're to screw it up or how you're going to ruin it or how you're and all that's going on in your soul and so you give yourself over to practicing sin and he says whoever practices sin well he's a slave to sin but then look at where he goes next he says the slave does not remain in the house forever but then here we go here's our place the sun remains forever so if the sun big s sets you free then you are free indeed so jesus like i said isn't speaking about committing a single isolated act of sin but rather living a life of sin but you see what the promise is here this is if the son has set you free if you have been forgiven and you have made your home in him you are free indeed so that the lie that you might be believing today is that sin can have victory over you long term and i guess this is just part of my life see i i so want some of you who are carrying the weight of secret sinful bondage to step into the light and taste the freedom that is given to the sons and daughters of god on high like like you don't have to for the rest of your life perpetually have your joy and what's rightfully yours taken from you if the son has set you free you are free indeed what's he talking about he's talking about the breaking of the damn he's talking about walking into your home making your home in him do you see how life flows out of that power flows out of that victory flows out of that the life of christ in us flows out of that this is the invitation that jesus is extending to this crowd at the last day of the feast if you're thirsty come to me and if you'll believe in me as the scriptures have explained to me then what what's going to happen rivers of living water come and drink for me rivers of living water will flow from your heart and so i'd love for you to just consider a couple of things um as we as we um end our time together today i'd love for you to just consider how do i how am i experiencing my christian life is my christian life marked by just what defeat after defeat after defeat uh and do i have joy in the lord am i living out the life that jesus has for me the life that he's promising me has the damn broke or am i still in bondage am i abiding making my home in jesus or is he simply a hotel so so a couple of things one if you're not a christian right you're tuning in today because a family member goes here or you're tuning in today uh for i don't know something popped up on your phone and you felt drawn to it which there's something going on there but no time for that and and you're just watching this right now i'm speaking to you you logged in today so i could say this to you this are you thirsty do you find now that that netflix and and porn and and all these other things or do you now find them not just not satisfying but destructive to your soul well if you're thirsty jesus is like come here if you're like no no i struggle with something too horrific remember the picture that we were shown of his forgiveness of his mercy that jesus doesn't latch onto shame and dog pile right he doesn't say to the woman what in the world were you thinking yeah you deserved that i should have let him kill you none of that happened has no one condemned you neither do i now go and sin no more and the damn breaks and then here comes the promise if you will abide in me if you will make your home in me you're going to know the truth and that truth is going to set you free and then the invitation you are no longer slaves to sin but your place is with me home with me for ever this is the invitation that jesus extends to all who would hear and respond so if you have not today i would just encourage you just a simple prayer right there where you are where you're like okay forgive me jesus for my sins help me make my home in you and then let a christian friend know let us know you can text in to that belong you can call up to you you can just find it email us let us know hey on sunday morning i asked jesus to let me help me make my home in him and and we will reach out to you immediately and see how we can serve you or come alongside of you christian i think one of the ways that the enemy of our souls wants to disrupt what god has fully given us in jesus christ is to get our minds away from what's been promised to us in jesus and instead focus our attention on where we're falling short or what we wish we were or what we want to be later and i think this is a real this is a this is just a brilliant strategy to take from you what's rightfully yours like would you say that your heart feels alive in christ right now would you describe your relationship with jesus as streams of living water bursting forth from your soul if if you're like no there's no way i could well i quick question i know this is a hard season so i'm not trying to pile on if anything i'm trying to lift up you i'm trying to give you hope here is jesus more hotel or home maybe i could um there are latent frustrations in my soul right now i mean i have found myself frustrated by things that don't normally frustrate me like random things i just went to the store the other and i'm walking around the store and everybody in the store just bothered me right i just wanted like get out of the way like you people bother me and i was like what is what is going on in me and i'm driving like why are all these people out and about i was like that's not normally my personality but i mean i'm just raging not like raging raging but in my soul it's like i hate everyone i have no idea where that came from so here's what i want to do because jesus is my home i want to notice it there's some spiritual warfare going on right i want to notice it that's not me no no my heart's been set free rivers of life flow for me i don't know what this is jesus will you help me will you lift i want to love people how you love i want to have compassion for people like you have compassion i want to be awakened to the beauty of every soul like you are awakened to the beauty of every soul will you remind me work in me help me i don't want to feel what i'm feeling right now well you work on my behalf king of kings and lord of lords and i began to feel over time i wish it was in an instant but over time i began to feel it loosening up joy beginning to take its place so christian i want to invite you back into laying those things before king jesus of saying i i have not made my home and you i have treated you like a hotel forgive me and help me abide in you there are all sorts of tools that you can get to help you with that um i just downloaded an app that john eldridge put out called the one minute pause it is a game changer of just reorienting your heart for a second one minute around the beauty and grace and union you have with jesus christ there's a one minute a three minute a five minute and you can just stop and breathe there's some ambient music he'll lead you in some prayers that are around reorienting your spirit to live where you're supposed to live i want to encourage you son or daughter of god on high to step into your birthright you have not been given a life of defeat you've been given a life of victory i want you to walk in it and experience it and delight in it because you are his you have a home in him forever let me pray father we bless your name we come to you now and ask for you to heal those places in our souls that that that aren't healed that are broken father a lot of us have latent frustrations right now a lot of us are at the end of ourselves we're just spent we're longing for normalcy and it seems like every day is different and and it's two steps forward and one step back and everything's moving slow we don't know about this we don't know how to do this we don't know and there's a kind of trauma occurring in our souls right now so we just come to you even in this moment like you cried out in this passage you said if anyone thirsts let him come to me and so here we are we're coming to you this morning we long to drink we long to believe in you and we long that out of our heart will flow rivers of living water we bless you we praise you we exalt you king of kings and lord of lords it's for your beautiful name i pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

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Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: vgAqbsY7Ip4

Length: 34min 28sec (2068 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020