Sermons - Matt Chandler - Animate

hi guys pastor Matt Chandler here pray that this sermon this resource 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 their again pray that this blesses you and grows you and your love for Jesus Christ [Music] hey good morning how are we how do you are salty I don't know what's going on but if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those Ephesians chapter 2 is where we're gonna be we're gonna look at ten verses here not quickly together but at a good pace I think it's probably how I would describe it now if you missed last week what we did is we last week kind of built upon the last 17 years by introducing kind of a new mission statement and then a new vision statement and so man we just gathered and said hey hear the good things that God has done in light of of multiplying our campuses rolling off really what we're doing here is we're reimagining what it looks like to be a local congregation with a global reach and so we covered all that last week if you missed it you can go listen to that online and so we built out this new mission statement in this statement basically is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission that that's all it is and so we said last week what would it be like if the village church both embraced and embodied the great commandment and the Great Commission the great commandment mean that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your mind with all your soul and strength like what would that look like if we embraced that as a community of faith like if you and I oriented everything about our lives around a growing love for Jesus Christ what would it look like if we said hey this stirs my affections for Jesus so I'm going to jam it into my life and this robs me of affection so I'm gonna cut it out even if it's morally neutral it doesn't have to be right or wrong it's just affecting my affections in a way that's contrary to what I want I'm like whoa didn't look like for our whole lives to be built around that and then to begin to embody it but like what would it be like if what people knew about you is you love Jesus now where you went to church now where you stood politically not where you landed on this or that not not kind of how awesome you know what if they're like they're like men they're really odd but they love Jesus that that's what I can tell you about like they they really are captivated by Jesus but it's they just want to talk about gee there I was talking about how awesome do you Jesus did Jesus down they love Jeanne they do like what it look like well we beyond we already are odd gosh I wish she would just embrace it but it's not our likeness to the world that points them to what is true we'll never be we're never gonna be cool enough right to win them right it really is our oddity that becomes the counterculture now with that said we just imagined that last week and I said well I'm a big portion of our staff we just said hey let's remove kind of the barriers and our thinking where we have a tendency to go well yeah but if God did that how would we do this and what would we do about that what we did and let's just get in the room and let's just wrestle to the ground what would happen if the four thousand of us that are here could actually by the grace of God turn and and and kind of embrace this call and then over a period of time that period of times called sanctification begin to embody it all the more so that when people knew men and women from the village church village people if you want to go there right nothing we can do about it now said yeah I don't know about this or that but I'm tell you this that person is captivated by Jesus and it's making me curious about what this thing's actually all about so they're not starting with our moral posture but they're starting with this man that we love and we're crazy about like what would that look like can you imagine what would it if we embraced and then over time we embodied and so the the staff and the elders we got together we just came up with what we call internally the 2030 vision so we don't have to call it that way out here I know that language makes some of you you know nervous you know but but internally it's 2030 vision you can just say this is where we want God to take us right so so here's and we read this you got all you got a poster of this last week I believe so here's what it says we are eight this twenty thirty we are a welcoming home to over 8,000 people seeking Jesus Christ and growing in the grace of the gospel with all our efforts wholly dependent on God we make disciples across all ages every stage of life has a portion in the church we celebrate 300 baptisms a year every year we are a safe place for the broken and suffering to come and receive hope and care we demonstrate the Ministry of presence as we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn we send disciples into their homes into their neighborhoods into our city and into the nation's we have planted and revitalized 30 churches and have a hundred missionary units on the field among 10 unreached people groups we have seen more than fifty thousand disciples rise from our campuses Church plants revitalization efforts and missionaries and we have generously resourced millions of people across the globe as we share the gifts that God has entrusted to us every day in all spaces through every season of life we are building beyond ourselves living the greater story together and creating a Kingdom legacy for generations to come so we threw that out there last week and now let me tell you where we're heading next starting next week we're gonna get back into the great commander we're gonna start pulling phrases so next week we're gonna look at knowledge and love for God that's the topic of next week in sermon the weekend after that it's knowledge and love for self that one will probably work itself out differently than you're thinking and so then we're just gonna keep pulling on these to show you where we're getting this stuff to show you what the foundation is we're trying to build upon but here's what I wanted to do today I wanted to spend a little bit more time in the mission in the vision in the hopes that God would animate us all the more now to animate right is to to stir to movement right to create movement to create life that that's what the word animate means is where animation comes from right it's a picture and then they just keep drawing those and then they animate the picture so that it's now moving it's not static now this might just be the wrong word and I say that it might just be the wrong word because man a lot of this stuff that we're talking about God is already up to God has already done in that he's already moving in this place this is not a static dead lifeless place there's much going on but but I can feel in my own heart in my guts it's like I just want the the the Spirit of God to just breathe I don't know why I keep doing this but breathe for whatever my hands do this when I say that word but I want the the Spirit of God to breathe so they might call all the more of us into the greater story and yet over the last few years as I prayed and considered and wrestled and contended with God over this stuff it just feels like there's three things that we just desperately need God to do and that we need to know about if we're gonna step into this and really believe that God can do it and use us to accomplish it alright and so let me for you type ayres let's just do it let me give you the three points number one we need to receive God's grace number two we need to embrace our callings sometimes I use the word destiny there I might use those interchangeably today and then lastly and I think this will be a huge one I'll try to spend some good time here we need to ask God for an increase in faith we're going to talk about plausibility structures I'm gonna you're super pumped about that but for now let's read our passage this is Ephesians 2 we're just gonna read 10 verses then we're going to dive into these three points I'll just have to warn you from the 8:30 I'm I'm gonna get excited about some of this and so whether you join me or not I'm I'm all-in and so let me look at this Ephesians 2:1 through 10 and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so then in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God and it is not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship Greek word there is poema that we are as poetry and that cool if you're an artist you'll love that if you're not that's cool you think about lines of poetry in a way that you don't if you're just writing right poetry's nuance he so we are his workmanship we're his PO amma created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them now let me just start by saying this that is everyone's testimony in this room if they're a Christian doesn't matter what your background is death to life is the story of all of us and let me tell you if mama gave birth to you Sunday morning at the altar popped you out pastor grep popped your bottom and you didn't breathe you with Jesus this is still your short your story my story all of us no matter how self-righteous or how licentiousness dead in our trespasses and sins and so when I'm talking about receiving the grace of God I'm trying to lay before you there's been an invitation given to you to come out from under death and into life this is what the passage is saying that you and I are stuck in our trespasses and sins we're dead see the only story there is the only story there is is that a creator God created all that you and I know and he says this is good and you and I perfect harmony with our Creator where we're designed to be you and I in perfect harmony with one another like God you know and we'll get to this in a couple of weeks so I probably shouldn't even say it but you know like our story doesn't start with total depravity our story starts with that's good more in a couple weeks but that's a teaser like you've got this beauty like we're in the presence of God but like that's walking around in the cool of the garden with I mean we're with him he's with us no barrier you don't even need faith he's just right there and then sin enters the cosmos the rebellion of Adam not the rebellion of Eve the rebellion of Adam and it fractures everything it breaks it it kicks us out of the presence of God and leads us into conflict with one another and so the story is this creation right this what theologians call the fall the fracture of all things on into the God of the Bible moving towards us to redeem us unto himself to save us from death and destruction to call us back into his presence to call us back into reconciliation with one another and here's here's what I'm trying to lay before you today that so many people in here and outside of here can't get past the fault that our story isn't the greater story our story is that we are haunted by the fact that there's a Creator who created us and we're stuck in sin and death and so we keep trying to fill this chasm of eternity that's meant to be satisfied by being reconciled with God with earthly stuff and it doesn't work and it wrecks everything around us and we keep trying to go back to the very things that can't satisfy us and it's a trap and it's a treadmill that almost everybody that you know is on gosh many of you in this room are on it like you didn't grow up in church and not get this I'll tell you the great angst of your pastor is to watch so many of you trying to earn what Paul just explicitly said cannot be earned to become a slave to incessant activity rather than just resting in the delight of God it would look like to finally just melt into the fact that he knows you're jacked up and he loves you and he's gonna move your you don't fight sin the way we like to fight it you fight sin with affection right when I can cultivate by the grace of God and the Word of God and seek and grab and hold of the Lord a love for Jesus then when this paltry temptation rolls up that I can go really that instead of this please Satan and I know we don't believe in Satan we're Westerners there's no sin anymore we just need some therapy nobody needs to tell nobody gets to tell us what to do and tell it burns down in our 40s and we'll get a counselor am I too much cuz I've got more I'm in 3rd gear I'm not even there yet now now what happens though is if by the grace of God you can say you know what's wrong with me it's not that my dad didn't hug me enough and it's not that that I've rebelled against a Creator God it's not this thing that happened to me back in life it's not this it's not that I am a sinner and that language has been taken from us it's like the one thing you can't discuss but can I tell you what's wrong in your life sin it might be nuanced a thousand different ways but it's sin it's rebellion against God and the story the greater story is Jesus going hey get in here come into life and what you and I do is go hey no no that can't be it but man this promotion that can't be but this affair no no that can be but more money than I can't be with this and no matter how many times it betrays us no matter how many times it it brings about shame and guilt and remorse we just keep running to a guy we are really dumb creatures it's why the the Shepherd imagery is so powerful in the Bible because sheep are ignorant they literally won't move 20 feet to eat green grass they'll just die they're on that's you and me say 'la you're welcome you can breathe out that's what's wrong but what did the passage say but God being rich in mercy with the great love with which he loved us , even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins made us alive look at me this is the only story there is there is no story of self-actualization do you hear me because I just punched our day in the face there is no story of self-actualization it's not Who am how can I be most fully me and how can I do my compulsions in a way that will satisfy my soul that is a trap that's gonna train wreck your life break your relationships and move you far there from God while making you more arrogant narcissistic so the imitation of Jesus like look don't do that come here just breathe I got you well I'm a mess oh gosh I know you're a mess what you think the whole cross thing was about get in here come have life I'm just telling I I am in spiritual agony for so many of you I just want you to be able to just breathe and feel the love of God for you in Christ you're so hung up on what happened ten years so hung up on how to fix yourself this way or do this so what God will do that in time you find it with affection how do you grow in affection you realize he actually likes you it's crazy about you love to eat delights and Yui rejoices over you and all the reasons you think that can't be possible a part of the problem it's part of our plausibility right think we'll catch that don't jump ahead to my third point now this isn't the only thing it's not just that we have to receive God's grace it's also that we must embrace our calling look back at verse 10 that hope oh and I think for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them right so we are God's poetry we have been thought out written out lined out for good that he has for us to do Psalm 139 says it this way that you are fearfully wonderfully made and that's acts 17 says that the times and boundaries of your habitation were set before you were but this means that where you work where you live where you play is no accident right and and then the Apostle Paul double down and first actually we'll start here in Romans 12 and say not only that but if you have received the grace of God when the Holy Spirit moved into your soul he gave you a gift to be you used for his glory right so I want you to hear me say this and you're not gonna believe me and I'm gonna go back to work God has a call on your life yours not just mine not just grants not just bleeker's not yours God's got a call on your life you have been uniquely wired and uniquely placed by God and and so I'm just telling you what what the way we tend to think god help us is that there's a group of men and women that's supposed to be out there getting it while we watch or while we support or while we might even cheer on and no wonder you're bored man you've been gifted our sin is that you think a certain type of gifting is what the Lord is all about did you know do you know this about so because I teach I'm a pure law it may be somebody like that's what you know the Bible says not many of you should want to do that like teaching it's the only gift in the Bible it says ah you want to think twice about that once you'll be judged more harshly just be careful with the whole I want to teach things and just breathe out and then then the passage in Corinthians actually goes on and says that it's those parts of the body that aren't glorious kind of the embarrassing parts they're actually worthy of more honor anybody ever had their gallbladder taken out I think I'm probably just violated a HIPAA law but you're fine you did it I didn't I just asked if you confessed I just asked I don't know what you know about the gallbladder and I just know this because a family member who will not go names because it's against the wall maybe not for me but maybe for if you're a doctor but the gallbladder 8 I believe not not a doctor believe it produces bile as its primary function that's nasty right that that's nasty like if you're like I want to be I want to be the gallbladder in the body of Christ I don't even know what that gift would be but here's what I can tell you ask anybody who had a gallbladder attack how painful it is and how the rest of the body starts shutting down when the gallbladder doesn't play its part God has a call on your life yours and if you there's a problem all over evangelicalism we are starting to look more and more and more like pre-reformation catholics than we are Bible believing Christians here's what I mean if you put it on this staff to fulfill this mission it ain't happening you've got a light here maybe let's use a sports ball metaphor if you like the NBA every year there's a trophy handed out in the NBA called the sixth man award right it's the guy that's not a starter but he comes off the bench and he plays valuable minutes to give other people a break right there ain't no sixth man in the kingdom of God everybody full of the spirits on the court sorry eggs there ain't no 12th man in the kingdom everybody's on the field nobody's on the bench you have been filled with the spirit you've been gifted by God and you've got a call on your life that has everything to do without you've been uniquely wired and where you've been placed and if you pump that to me you'll Rob only yourself of joy and you'll Rob us all of an opportunity to see God flex listen me God has a call in your life now my life your life and if right now you're going now you've been divorced seven times um you know a hundred billion dollars in debt and I'm poor failed the eighth grade so died brother by the way I spend a little extra time in middle school I'm alright like if you'll do that why why are you making this so much about you you you think you're wasted twenty years of addiction can't be redeemed and weaponized against darkness you think your financial stupidity can't be redeemed and webinars against darkness if we're gonna be a place and I quote that's a safe place for the broken and suffering to come and receive hope and care if we are going to demonstrate the Ministry of presence as we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn we'll need every gift imaginable activated and at work among us now what we're going to work on what we are actively working on is how we might come alongside of you and help you discover what that gift is and create pathways by which you might use that gift but you will have to turn and believe that God has a call on your life that you have been called to ministry well haven't I'm a welder ok no you're actually in ministry welding I'm a teacher well yeah yeah praise God you are a teacher in ministry you are right I mean I get it you can just pick whatever domain that we're in and what you've actually been called to is ministry and where the assignment is is whatever domain you're in which by the way goes back to how you've been designed where you were placed and what you were naturally drawn to all right last one I wanted to do work here good I'm at 23 minutes so not only are we gonna have to receive God's grace not only we're gonna have to embrace our calling we're also gonna have to ask for an increase in faith let me try to explain so much of what jams us up sociologists will talk about what's called a plausibility structure let me explain plausibility structure knowing that you won't care but you might be able to understand here we go a plausibility structure is culturally formed which means every culture in the world has a plausibility structure and a plausibility structure is what intuitively strikes us as rational all right so that's all a plausibility structure is an intuition I don't know if you know it's like I'm really intuitive person like intuition is actually just all that you've read and taken in all your life kind of operating underneath the surface and you'll just feel a kind of way about a certain situation you're like I'm brutal that's let's do intuition well actually you just like a sponge of soaked up things that you didn't know you soaked up and they're coming into play now so every culture in the world has a way of seeing the world that seems rational to them their intuition is that makes sense now you and I for the most part I don't know everybody in this room you and I for the most part are of Western origin now not time and if you've done the whole like Internet I know actually I mean I know you know in the last nine generations but actually what I'm from someone talking I'm talking about the culture that you were born in more than likely in this room is a Western culture that's not a bad thing you should never apologize fact you actually should were Jewish there's a lot of beautiful things in that but let me talk to you about our plausibility structure and how it could actually cause us a lot of problems as we dream about this stuff here's the first thing that's true about the Western plausibility structure and and by the way if you're like man is he just in his office thinking the stuff up no I know I'm not I just read and then there's some books I don't even read I just use which is a great trick but I it's just on the shelf and I'm like what would that be call I don't know let's pull this down into exile let's go read that but so I know just enough to be dangerous so here we go the Western plausibility structure is mechanistic what that means is that we believe things are determined by a physical process along let me try to explain we think if we set up a program everybody we put in that program will come outside the other half or the other side of that program the same way this is how we think about education this is how we this is our plausibility structure if you get into this program regardless of how you're wired regardless of family of ordinary dollars what do you you'll come out the other side looking like this that's what a standardized test is all about in it I mean I'm bagging on I'm just saying this is our plaza this seems rational to us like even as I say it doesn't it feels rational yeah if everybody got the same information they would turn out the same but that there's a problem with that I'll get to that morning it is naturalistic so it's mechanistic we believe that we can kind of create a mechanism that'll that'll kind of get us at a desired outcome and then naturalistic we or even if we won't admit it skeptical of the supernatural we are naturally in our plausibility structure we are skeptical of the supernatural let me give this as I thought Josh Patterson two weeks ago goodness sakes like I've already listened that sermon like three times he crushed it but let me let me show you this at play so he gets in the car with a guy and the guys like hey let's just ask that God would give us faith to believe that he could heal something did this man right did you remember this story and and Josh media was like well he's gonna give it to you because I ain't got it I mean just media lead even fight for these guys like well hopefully you got it cuz it ain't in me and then they go in this guy's in a in a coma and they're praying and Josh like he's like yes Lord yes but probably not or it's a Ministry of presence we're here love these people we're and what's happening its plausibility structure right it's this doesn't this is not rational this man is in a coma the doctors said he's not coming out and so what's Josh doing it's just plausibility structure it's this doesn't happen this is intuitively rational to me because I prayed over a lot of people in the hospital didn't just jump out their bed right and so J you could hear in joy I wanted to believe it I did and then later on that night we got a call and what I would he woke up he heard the gospel he received Christ and then he died a few hours later right and then even now like he'll think back home then go I know maybe you've listened I have bothered I've been a part these crazy supernatural moments they like blew all my circuits and then three days later I'm like did that happen or do I just get really lucky anybody else feel this he might go to pray for somebody and they can feel like because supernatural will never feel natural to someone who this is their worldview and here's why I would just encourage you to travel you know whose plausibility structure is completely opposite of ours like where my little sister and her husband serve in Taiwan supernatural is normal it's normal the whole world view is supernatural gosh and and not just for good like man they they burn money to their dead relatives so that they're met the relatives might have money in the afterlife it's a supernatural culture we're so ethnocentric all we know is the West that we think we're the majority of the world we're the minority even the Christian world do you know about 2025 Westerners will make up 20% of global Christianity the global South Africa Asia Latin America South America will compose of 80% of rapidly growing Christianity and their plausibility structure is the exact opposite of ours lastly lastly it's not just mechanistic it's not just naturalistic but it's also it's been shaped by the Enlightenment and praise God for the Enlightenment good things came from it but a back edge came from it we are overly confident in our intellect to solve our problems we are overly confident in our intellect to be able to solve our problems you see how all three of these actually tie together to form a worldview that this is called a plausibility structure now why why would I mention that here well if we go back to this list it's absurd here's my intuitive rational sense it's ridiculous we currently run four thousand we're saying in the next ten thousand xed next 10 years we're gonna have four thousand more and if you live in there haven't we already cycled through the whole city having anyone who's a Christian haven't they already cycled through they came for a little bit decided one for them moved on or came for a little bit and hung out for couple years and then rolled out or came once was like that guy yells too much a roll out writer I don't like this about or I don't like like haven't we cycled through but like I know we're we're in Dallas people cycle through here they don't they I mean they rarely go come hell or high water these are my people like like that's just like a old yesteryear kind of idea now it's the one in the Bible and the one that shapes you over time most fully but but whatever so like when are we thinking about growing my forth out like who who hadn't already been here I hate to tell you this past man you already ran everybody off remember space maker sermons they Ward's brother and and yet here's my answer look right at me I don't have any idea where they're coming from but I know this I know that for all of my plausibility structure that doesn't make sense that God is able I don't have any answers I just have like you think about this last year the Flower Mound Candace Flower Mound baptized 63 people that's we're gonna also you know how many were one to baptize in Twenty twenty three hundred now here's what that means so let's start connecting the dots that means you're going to have to believe that God has actually got a call on your life and you're going to have to believe that through your paltry testimony he might draw men and women to Christ this goes back to my earlier point if you're like oh I'll let the go groups do that let the people that have the gift of evangelism do that you know evangelism the only gift that the Bible says let everybody do regardless if they have the gift or not it's the only one but do the work of an evangelist is what Paul tells Timothy he doesn't say hey evangelist use that gift he's saying do the work of an evangelist well it's not really my gift okay do the work of an evangelist yeah I mean I just get real nervous great God can actually use nervous people to push back darkness and draw into the greater story how about this so over the last 17 years man we've sent missionaries all over the world but as campuses have rolled off they've gone hey we sent those out we know those people we're gonna take those six we're gonna take these 12 we're gonna take these 15 we're gonna take this and and flower Mons left with 10 right now trevor am i right on that number about 10 missionary units on at the field and one unreached people group which means we need to find 90 units families or individuals that will forsake the comfort of a predominantly upper-middle class area and go to places that are dangerous for them and their families because the gospel is going to penetrate that place many faith to believe it it's absurd we're gonna find these people I don't know but God will make away now as I just so you I don't know how you see me I don't I don't know if you like see me as human or or not human or and you can giggle at this but I get trashed from people all the time and I'm like woody but I'm wearing a cape what you think I could do what so here like this has been an agonizing process from this been going on for a couple years like when you think back on me saying there's been a really hard season for me a lot of it some of this stuff where I'm just like guys it's just why do we have to do anything I can we just keep the what you're just blessing what we're doing and and why can't we just keep like people don't like change Lord Pei if I got a lead change I'm gonna take a lot of Sh I don't know I want to take shots I'm 45 not 28 anymore and so even this past week I mean I did that thing maybe maybe you've done it maybe you haven't done it I was laying in bed I go to bed early and let me explain I go to bed about 9:30 I'd like to go to bed earlier but my children are selfish and so I got in bed at 9:30 and again here's what started to happen I will not be able to turn my mind off that have anybody else so a game I will play when I can't turn my mind off is that will imagine me scooping whatever that thing is in my that I'm worried about maybe it's this thing with a tune on maybe it's this thing that we're trying this kind of insane foolish journey that we're embarking on I'll pretend that I put it on my hand and I'll just imagine that I'm laying it at the feet of Jesus and I will just say in my prayers I've got to sleep you don't ever sleep will you take this and run with it will I get some rest I'll be right back in the morning to do whatever you want me to do but I need rest you don't need rest I've got to sleep and so I just felt like and and then like in my head I'm having arguments with people I don't even have a night mind I mean never happen you might do this where you're like I'm gonna say this when they say that and then sorry I'm not even in a fight and so then I'm like oh give me a break Lord will you take and so then I was like how long have I been doing this and I reached over and I hit my Apple watch phone is on the other side of the room and it was 12:30 so then and then I'm like still up so I was like you know what I'm just so I got out of bed and man I just went to my spa grab my Bible grab this book I've been reading and I it's a it's an academic book like plausibility structure kind of book this is like if anything can put me down it's this book and so man I and I'm just wrestling with the Lord I mean just contending and and while I'm praying and whining and he's just so good like oh gosh okay mad as I'm as I'm doing that thing that I do I was reminded of this quote from a book called on the road with st. Augustine so James Casey Smith wrote this book I've told you this before I'll keep telling you I had a mentor years ago that said you need to find an ancient friend you need to find an ancient friend who will anchor you as your culture kind of moves two and four and so agustin the Bishop of Hippo was my guy and so I picked him and I started by reading Peter Browns biography which was so dense I think I literally fell asleep multiple I think that book took me a year to read but then man I just I loved agustín's take on the world he I mean just saved from such grotesqueness I mean he had a kind of wicked sexual perversion that would make even the most wickedly sexual perverse person in this room blush and Jesus saved him and he's known as one of the greatest minds in Christendom right and so James K Smith wrote this book on the road to san agustin so if I see a gustin's name I'm buying it I'm reading it but I was thinking of this quote so I had to look it back up and here's the quote if you keep walking around the phenomenon of ambition you'll start to note a couple of features first the opposite of ambition is not humility it is sloth passivity timidity complacency we sometimes like to comfort ourselves by imagining that the ambitious are prideful and arrogant so that those of us who never risk never aspire never launch out into the deep get to where the moralizing mantle of humility this imagining is often a thin cover for a lack of courage even lazy playing it safe isn't humble so I mean it it's 2:30 in the morning and I felt like the Lord was like like wanted to challenge my masculinity or something I mean that that that's not the passage we that's not the ambitious quote from John Stott right that if it's King Jesus shouldn't we want his reign and rule to be known and seen everywhere this is like quit being a coward quit being so timid quit being passive can I do this or can I do it I know you can't can I why you why you feel like you got to do it like if I'm putting this in your heart I'm asking you to run for it whether or not we get there or not that's that's on me that it on you you don't save people you tell them who does right you don't you you be obedient day in and day out I'll handle the heavy lifting you just grow in your affection you just do your best to position yourself under the waterfall of my mercy and let me go to work go to bed so I climbed in bed like a sari and here let me say this and then let me conclude I I want all of you to come with me but we won't play it safe if God does all of this what's it gonna look like I can be real honest about that I know the answer now no idea what we do how do we now get how we look I listen burr as scooby-doo would say I have no idea but here's what I want to invite you into three things and relax this is really three five minutes I just want to plead with you will you maybe for the first time ever maybe grew up in church and you got baptized as a kid but there's never been a moment for you where you've really just received the grace of God I have just prayed all week that you'd finally be tired enough of yourself tired enough of your own efforts weary enough from trying yet again would you just receive the grace of God I've been saying this to you for nearly 20 years he knew what he was buying in the cross he's not wanting to do over now that he sees you in 2020 he knows he knew what he was buying that's why the cost was so steep like listen you are your your core identity is beloved like you get that what it'd be like for you to finally just say yes you know well you don't even have to know like if right now you're like well that what would that mean about this this this is that's not the way that's words we just say yes I'm in the Lord's like okay take a step take a step towards me and you'll find some of those early steps like let's go and then eventually is gonna like ticket step you like oh gosh if I do that this is what's gonna do that and that's gonna happen there these people are gonna like maybe physically try to kill me the I'm just now and then the Lord will go no no you can try take this step it's not without cost but but he's not asking you right now to sell everything you have and head to the ends of the earth just say lay your yes down so I wanted my key that's one of the invitations to lay your yes down number number two what would it look like for you to embrace your calling your destiny what you were designed by God to do what would it look like for you to leverage that for the kingdom like God has a calling you have been uniquely gifted by God there aren't varsity junior varsity gifts there's just each believer being given a gift by the Holy Spirit from the spirit for the building up of the body you have had a personal encounter with the Living God if you're a Christian and yet that personal encounter which nobody should ever take from you is being woven into the tapestry of God's people in a given location so that we don't have just a bunch of eyes with no ears a bunch of ears with no eyes this is the body imagery that God has given us in the book of Corinthians that we need one another to be all that God would have a suit you cannot rely upon paid staff to fulfill this you should want more for yourself like you should want to play not watch and then lastly I one of the ways I can feel in myself this plausibility structure idea is when my first response to almost anything is skepticism and doubt and if you're looking at the outrage of the day in which we live it's almost all tied to this doubt your intent I doubt your goodness I'm skeptical that this could ever happen I am right is this our default mode I honestly think this is why you're seeing outbreaks of Holy Ghost power all over the world and here with our plausibility scripture that the church is shrinking and everywhere else that's exploding so here's what I would like you to do if you take this little twenty-thirty vision and you look at it I wonder what it would look like for you to pray into your skepticism so so my guess is depending on how you're wired and what your history is something jumps off the page as we read it like so maybe it's the first sentence you're like 8,000 really you know I know you've seen our building well it took me two hours just to get into this one well I'm not asking you to worry about that yet we will be asking you to worry about that we're not asking right now well what if we just said I've got my doubts increased my faith maybe you're looking at 300 people becoming a Christian you're like brother it's 2020 do you understand what it's like out there you understand the animosity towards Christianity that's out there well I think I do but I also haven't seen them feed us two lions yet which is when the church was fastest growing so it's not so bad yet that they're killing us and burning us alive I haven't seen a governor yet that uses us as human torches for their party so I think we got a fighting chance still so what would it look like for you to go no I I believe that not only can 300 people out from 4,000 people become a Christian but I believe God wants to use me to herald the good news to my neighbor to my coworker to this family member that I've long written off is not interested maybe it's you're like 10 unreached people groups give any idea how hard reaching unreached people's they don't even know the name of Jesus you know you're starting like not ground zero you're like ten floors below ground zero you just got a start and go hey you know there's there's this guy I want to tell you about um we figure out my context here right but but maybe you just pray into that maybe scope I believe he you've spread all over the world you're gonna continue to spread all over the world I want to be a part with my prayers I want to be a part with my pocketbooks I want you to put in my heart a desire to go and if you don't have that desire to go then the men go across the street that's got a call on your life love you you're in Dallas you can play it safe gosh there's maybe seven churches in a 20-mile radius that I have all and better amenities than we do it is do looks I want you to come there another person in this room I haven't seen anyone in the room who I'm like come with me but I mean you consider by the replay i M see it so I'm just saying hey let's go will you come and so will you consider will you receive the grace of God if that's you and you want to do that I'm gonna have men and women up front today and you don't have to say anything to come down and say I want to say yes to Jesus I'm not even sure what that means I can just feel in my guts right now that I want to do that can I say that to you will you help me know what to do next that's what we're here for and then what would it look like for you to use your gift for the building up of the body that means you got to know how you're gifted this is a great conversation with people who know you well right you don't want that first week of American Idol happening right you're like I know what my gift is you just need somebody who's really loving to go let me tell you what I see in you not that I see this right but you're gonna have to fight for you're gonna have to turn into it until we build what we hope can help you discover it but again we're trying not to be mechanistically we want to create some things but it's gonna it's a complex you're a complex individual human with the backstory and in a current reality and so we want to learn how to do this in a way that's not like like a printing press right and then lastly will you lean into your skepticism wherever it is we are not meant to live by intuitive rational belief we're meant to live by faith that's what pleases God let me pray father bless these men and women in the name of Jesus encourage our hearts stir us up in your love it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 17,501

Rating: 4.9705882 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: zzwF6PkzQ1A

Length: 46min 32sec (2792 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2020