Sermons - Matt Chandler - Called to Follow

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] [Music] well good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those John chapter 1 we will six weeks into our study of John finished chapter 1 you don't need to panic about that there's only 21 chapters so around 20 22 20 23 we should wrap this up actually it will speed up you got to spend a lot of time laying this Christocentric base so that we can understand Christ all the more clearly in Genesis chapter 3 go ahead and get to John 1 I just want to kind of set up how we look at this passage of scripture in Genesis chapter 3 we see what the church what theologians have called really for a long time now the the fall and the fall is when humankind decided to rebel against their creator and in so doing fracture the universe as God had designed it to operate and be and if you've been around as we've walked through the first chapter of John you've seen all the kind of collateral damage of that rebellion and so if it is true that we have been made by Jesus for Jesus then that move isolated us from the thing we needed most on top of that if as we saw earlier in this passage we only know who we are and who we are not by beholding the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world then this isolating moment this rebellion against God has now taken us out of what we most need to be alive as humans and has also made it impossible to define who we are which leads to all kinds of projection and all kinds of shame right so so in that space where humankind have gone forget you the Creator I think I'd be better at this myself God's response is a stunning one and it reveals to us how he's going to operate with us from the moment that our relationship with him is fractured right up until this very moment this is what the Bible says that when Adam and Eve rebelled against God now outside of their designed purpose unable to define themselves relationships horizontally and vertically fractured they hear God in the garden walking towards them and they hid right and and then there's this crazy question that God asks and it's in the question that I think you began to see how God's gonna operate in his relationship with rebellious humankind moving forward in the garden God's voice says this where are you now let me tell you why that's significant because God doesn't need to know stuff all right like in in what universe does God not know where Adam and Eve are and even if you think about the foolishness of the hiding place so you've got Adam and Eve who who know God who have walked with God who are in the midst of God's creation who realized that they are naked for the first time and that word naked it isn't just kind of a physical nakedness it's the the idea of shame and guilt so they realize oh my gosh we are guilty oh no what have we done you ever have you ever had that question into your conscience what have I done well God shows up and what have I done quick get some leaves and they jump into the bushes and God says hey where are you and God knows where they are it's not that God doesn't see them right but when you're small sometimes you think in ways that that aren't the ways things are so if you've had children or been around children I think you see this there's this there's the time period in which a kid in the game hide-and-go-seek thinks that if they can't see you you can't see them so their hiding places are terrible rice it's like land in the living room floor right with their hand you're like what do I need to get help for you this is not a hiding place you're just laying on the floor you're just under the covers I can see your body right in the cover so this is Adam and Eve trying to hide from God but God shows up and says where are you I don't know what kind of home you grew up in the most terrifying sentence that my mother could ever utter was wait till your dad gets home right cuz mom could whip me but she couldn't hurt me right well I think that's universal I think mom can give you a decent weapon then you hit this age you're like pow all right and then the dreaded wait till your daddy gets home because daddy regardless of age it's man strength man just got some Gus got some velocity the mama ain't got and and what we see happening in this text is the rebellion of God's creation against the Creator and our Heavenly Father steps into the garden doesn't kick open the garden go where are you not gonna believe what the Holy Spirit just told me about you but the father shows up and says hey where are you well we felt guilt and shame so we hid who told you you were naked did you do what I told you not to do yeah we did okay well let me make clothes for you because the leaves aren't gonna cut it and God clothed them and the rhythm that you see established that I've tried to press for 16 years into our guts is that God is an initiating God he pursues us he chases us regardless of our rebellion this is what's happening in the book of Exodus as we walk through that right God among us is what we see as the prophets heralded that God key moving towards us and in Christ in the incarnation of the Son of God Co eternal with the father do we not see the ultimate moving towards as we covered several weeks ago God put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood in fact the the writers of the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke would record Jesus himself saying this as his mission statement the Son of Man comes to seek and save the Lost not that he shows I'm like you're a bunch of screw-ups I'm gonna burn it to the ground didn't show up with tablets with more rules he came to seek and save the Lost and that's what we're about to look at even again today as Jesus begins to call his disciples let's look at this together John chapter one we're gonna pick it up in verse 35 the next day again John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said behold the lamb of God the two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them what are you seeking and they said to him rabbi which means teacher where you stayin and he said to them come and you will see so they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew simon Peters brother he first found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah which means Christ and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon son of John you shall be called Cephas which means Peter the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him follow me now Philip was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter and Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth and Philip said to him come and see and Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit and Nathanael said to him how do you know me and jesus answered him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you and that the annual said to him rabbi you are the son of God you are the king of Israel I love jesus's response and jesus answered him because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these and he said to him truly truly I say to you you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the sons of man now what we see happening in this text is Jesus beginning to do what Jesus does seek and save the Lost call unto himself men and women to follow him he's doing this same thing right now even unto this day Jesus even in this moment is walking by and calling to himself those who would follow him and we even see in this text the ways in which he goes about doing that even unto this day so look back at the top of our text I want to read a few verses and then kind of explain it the next day again John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said behold the lamb of God now that's the same message he preached last week was it not I mean brother didn't even throw in a new illustration word for word what he said last week behold the lamb of God look at me it's the only message we've got it's not that the gospel doesn't speak to other political issues or doesn't speak to other social issues it's the vivifying center of the church or she has no center it is the gospel and its implications it is never anything other than the gospel a church filled with good works that is without the gospel it's a church without the power of the Holy Spirit we have one message Christ and him crucified it might be helpful for us to know that what's happening in John the Baptist's ministry is that a revival is broken out all right so if you just read it in pieces you kind of miss it but if you read the Synoptics and you came here to John John the Baptist actually starts preaching outside of town and the Holy Ghost starts moving and people start coming out to the wilderness to hear and they're being baptized and they're repenting of their sins like he's old school revival right if you go read John's sermons they read something like this right repent for the kingdom of God is at hand now tell me that ain't old school right repent some stuff about vipers produce fruit in keeping with repentance these are John's sermons and it's resonating and people are going I want to repent I want to turn and they're being baptized and they're following John and this revival has gotten so big that people of real influence in the social order of the day are coming out just to check it out and John with one message keeps preaching the same thing holds the Lamb of God and more come out hey behold the lamb of God he does this in all sorts of different ways there's one coming and I'm not worthy to untie his shoes there there's one coming and I'm not worthy to be considered anywhere near him there's one coming who was before me even though I'm older than him right the this is behold the lamb of God is his only message and so then what we see happening on this day is that John the Baptist has brought two of these disciples that are following him we don't know why these two other than the Providence of God and they go and I'm not doing a lot of language work today but they they intentionally stand where they know Jesus is gonna walk by and as Jesus walks by he says behold the lamb of God he yet again proclaims the word of God and these brothers hear it they understand it and they follow him listen to me to this day Jesus gathers to himself men and women to follow him through the proclamation of his word and where it is proclaimed and people hear it and they understand it they will follow him this actually becomes a pattern in the new testament of gospel proclamation that sees men and women come to follow Jesus Christ and so here's one day we're gonna do something a little bit differently I want to introduce you to Jeff Haley I've known Jeff Haley for a long time elder who's happily retired and and that this brother has the story that he heard the Word of God proclaimed and the scales fell off his eyes and his heart of stone was softened into a heart of flesh and he's followed the Lord ever since and so let me introduce you to Jeff Haley Jeff will you come tell them their story doc thank you it's an honor to be here this morning and my name is Jeff Haley as matt said I'm an elder here at the village church been attending here since 2011 and I am very happily retired that is the truth and I have my little guide here because Matt said you have three to five minutes and if I don't finish he'll come drag me off this stage so I'm gonna be careful my parents had a very difficult relationship as a matter of fact I might even classify their relationship as hostile and they tried a lot of different things in order to repair that relationship and finally kind of as a last ditch effort they decided that they would start attending church so at about nine years of age my mom and dad dragged me and my brother and sister to church and unfortunately we were taken to a church where that denomination taught on the wrath of God and emphasized legalism as a means to salvation the whole time that I was there I never remember hearing a message on grace on mercy or love but I do remember one particular message that had a profound impact on me the message the preacher taught was out of James chapter 2 where James talks about works and faith and the message that I clearly heard from the preacher that morning was that a person would be judged worthy of going to heaven based on how little he sinned and on how much he did to please God and even at nine years old I recognized that there was nothing in me that was ever going to be worthy enough to go to heaven and so I pushed religion out of my life that was the end of it for me my heart was hardened toward the things of God and I live the next 25 years totally apart from the Lord and in that 25 years I wrecked my life it was wrought with sin it was wrought with brokenness it was wrought with failure by the mercy and grace of God just a god only story that I can't go into right now I found myself 25 years later sitting in a church listening to a sermon the preacher opens up his Bible and he says I'm going to preach a message today on James chapter 2 and when that preacher opened his mouth what he taught from James chapter 2 was on the Grace and the mercy and the love of God he talked beautifully and whimsically about the power of the Holy Spirit to enter into a person's life and to change them he shared the gospel out of James chapter 2 and what happened when he did that is that wall of resistance that hard heart of mine melted before the Lord and in an instant from that sermon my entire life was changed two weeks later I went to men's retreat and I expressed verbally to some men who were showing great love to me I expressed verbally to those men what God had done in my heart and I submitted my life my energy my passions my will to the lordship of Jesus Christ everything changed the result of that is my entire family got saved my mom got saved my brother got saved my sister got saved my nieces and my nephews got saved because of a sermon that a preacher was faithful to preach on the gospel of Jesus Christ so I thank God for that sermon amen so I wanted to do this just as a way of encouraging you if that if that's your story like maybe there are other people involved but man you were sitting in a chair like this and somebody opened up the book and and started preaching and and something broke loose and you scales fell off something James that that's your test mode you do me a favor and just stand up where you are even if you're in South Lake or Plano or forward go ahead just stand I'm say man I was listening to a sermon and Jesus wrecked my life in a good way yeah if that was you that's praise God yeah so hey stand up let me let me talk to you for a second keep up hey like this is what happened in that moment he is God yet again ask the question where are you but he asked that question for you not for him and and he opened up your eyes to see and he gave you a new heart and the Bible says he transferred you out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son and I want you to remember again today that he saw you and he loved you and he came and found you and you were a lot more of a mess back then than you are right now and so don't you to doubt his love for you he began the work he'll be faithful to complete the work it's not up to you to complete the work he's gonna complete the work so I want you to breathe and remember that he saw you he found you and he saved you an he's not gonna let go of you okay I praise God won't you have a seat now what we see in the text is this isn't the only way that Jesus walks by right that the next way you can see here is in verse 40 look at this one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew simon Peters brother he first found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah which means Christ he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon the son of John but you shall be called Cephas which means Peter so so I love this you've got Jesus that gives this offer to Andrew right come and you will see and what does what does he do what does Andrews like man I have got to tell my brother about this right I mean we know Peter he he's kind of a wheels off madman and God's gonna use him in powerful ways after he takes 50 years to Humble him amen thank God God's in it for the long game and Andrew he runs and it's the invitation to me that as I just thought about it this week really kind of reminding me stirred up my affections and some pretty keen ways towards the Lord where he says hey we found the Messiah we've found him so for us man yeah okay Messiah the Christ but if you remember back to week 1 when we were saying that that in him was light and that light is the life of man it's shown in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it what Andrew is saying to his brother is far more significant than just he's the Messiah so when Andrew runs up to Peter if you remember that that the light shining in the darkness is Jesus's victory over sin over guilt over shame and so when Andrew runs up to Peter and says hey I found the Messiah he's saying hey that's shame that guilt I mean listen you're gonna learn about Peter before or really after he meets Jesus and after he sees miracles that he's a numbskull that he's a that we wouldn't hire him on our staff here right we just look he's so brash and arrogant you like yeah bro you know you can go somewhere else first and then you get some temperament then you can come back and he's coming to going hey man all all that guilt all that shame all our mistakes we found the Messiah you got to come check this out Peter you get it's the Messiah if you think about kind of supernatural dark spiritual bondage we found the Messiah that's over if you want to talk about oppression we found the Messiah oppression is over if you even want to think about I think the one I want to spend my time on because I am hemmed in here a bit I'm ready at forty five to say every man and every woman I have ever met deep inside of them continues to ask the question am i good enough I think it's a haunting reality as a mom or as a dad as a man as a woman am I good enough maybe the question is am i enough can I just be me and when Andrew runs up to Peter and says I found the Messiah he's laying before Peter and as Jesus walks in front of us today the offer laid before us is you get to be you you don't have to be this person you don't have to you get to be you and and that's not only just enough for God but God rejoices and that'n celebrates that because he's the one that made you for himself and has given you the giftedness to operate in that giftedness but really what you're seeing in this family in this situation is not just people coming to Jesus because of the proclamation of the word but people coming to Jesus because of the faithfulness of their families like what we see in this text is honestly families of faith a brother going to a brother that leads to homes that are built upon beholding the lamb and let me tell you why that's significant not perfect homes because there are no perfect homes right not perfect parents because there are no perfect parents homes that by the grace of God is best they know how are trying to behold the lamb of God I think in that environment homes that are built on beholding the lamb become like the lamb more interested in the heart than they are moral action pause Astrid footnote children need rules and the law or they'll burn down the Western Hemisphere but they also need moms and dads who go after their heart not just snap at their behavior to go after the heart of your child is far more difficult than dispensing discipline because they didn't do what you said although I believe in discipline when you behold the lamb you become like the lamb and that's an environment homes built on beholding the land becomes an environment where a child can figure out who they are and be okay with that why because you're beholding the lamb and when you're beholding the lamb now that kind of brokenness in you that wants to protect them from being like you because you hate yourself like that starts to dissipate and you're able to just speak like I'm I'm able to say I've got a really really tender son and I'm able to just call that I hey you be tender man don't make your friends make you choose between being ferocious and being tender you be loving and kind and sweet and that's masculine bro all right that's not feminine that's meso you be sweet and kind and then if you're on the field pop them in the mouth right you can be both of those that's what it means to be a man to be ferocious and kind be both and I can say to my oldest daughter hey man you know you gotta wear a bunch of makeup lashes the goat of Jesus he you could ride a horse and no no offense if I offended it wasn't intended you do you paint the house if the house needs painted paint but like my my my girl wants to wear boots and be on her horse and ride a fire a couple rounds in the air and I want to come alongside of her and go you go get that God's made you that's a beautiful thing for you to be fierce but I want you to down want you to be as smart as you can putt don't act dumb for some stupid boy you be brilliant and godly and you make them come to you you don't come down to them I don't be able to speak that endure and not do all this but be you be who God's made you to be right now homes that behold the lamb have that as a possibility not as a guarantee but as a possibility but if you're not beholding the lamb then think the weight that's on you and on your kids to perform to be something that everything in their universe is telling them they must be which lead to men that are projecting a Pho strength it's not their who actually are more heart level guys and not mine level guys who pretend to be mine level guys because they've been shamed at their you know kind of more base instinctual level which is mental lover and I'm kind and I'm gentle and and our society goes man you can't be that beautiful and that it grows some chest hair right but but the Word of God would say no no you you be you God made you God designed you for you to be you and it's by beholding the land that we're freed up to finally be who we are and not only is that okay but God rejoices in that so I want to introduce you to Jason swords men I love Jason he's a below-the-line guy that's what I'd call him he feels deeply but he's also got a bit of warrior in him that's my kind of guy and man he grew up in a home that just constantly was saying hey look at Jesus hate how amazing is Jesus Hey look at Jesus so y'all welcome Jason [Applause] good morning miss Matt said my name is Jason swords and I serve as a flour mill and elder here at this campus I also serve as a central elder I actually been coming to the village now for for 14 years and I was raised in a household of faith which was just a complete blessing to my life my parents were not raised in the church they didn't have that experience and so as they were raising my sister and I they were very intentional with pointing us to the gospel and to a Savior and so this started out for me when I was six years old when I was supposed to go into one of my first days of school and I was afraid I just didn't want to go into didn't want my mom to leave me I didn't want to feel alone and my mom just took that opportunity to say you know baby God doesn't want you to be afraid that's not how he operates and if you wouldn't mind I'd like to pray with you about feeling afraid and and I just want to tell you about Jesus because God wants to have a personal relationship with you and in order to do that because we're sinners we need a Savior and that's Jesus Jesus came to earth he was not a sinner he died for us and because of that we get access to God in that personal relationship does that does that sound like something that you would want because if if you want that you're never gonna feel alone and so in that moment I said yes that's what I want I don't want to feel alone and so she did she prayed that prayer with me I prayed that prayer with her and I asked users to come into my heart and I went right into school confidently believing that I was never going to be alone and so from from that moment that opened up the door for my mom and my dad and my sister for us all to have these gospel conversations and there was decisions made in my home where they chose to put us into a small Bible teaching school in the heart of East Texas and and this school was taught by global missionaries coming in and we would invite those missionaries over to our house and I'd get to hear their stories and it just it just showcased to me that oh my gosh God is a personal God he's a global God and and that just was an amazing thing to see in my home my parents also chose to just pick up and move out of our house and and and really get rid of some creature comforts and take us into a life of ministry for a season and that just didn't seem weird to me because all along the way they were talking to me about their personal relationship with God and so that was something that they continued to water they continued to Shepherd in my own heart they cultivated this household of conversations that were about the Lord but I still I still had moments in high school and in college where I tested the personal relationship that I had with the Lord there was moments when I definitely was interested in exploring more about what I wanted to explore than what God wanted to explore and what was amazing about that is that my parents didn't panic they didn't go oh we've got to do something different they actually just continued to model what it was like to live in a relationship with the Lord when my dad messed up he would tell me it's okay Jason there is a better father there's a better father than me and he kept pointing to him and so as I got out of college and I continued to you know think on the words that my parents had really been pumping into me for good 20 years at 25 I was doing ministry down in Lima Peru and just kind of because God's good I got asked what I like to be baptized which is which was strange because I didn't invite that I had been sprinkled as a child and and that was you know what I think I thought I needed to do and yet in that moment I heard God saying I'm a jealous God and I'm not playing around like I've had a relationship you know I want more of it I want all of it and at 25 I just said yes how could where can I get baptized and I was baptized in a public pool somewhere in Lima and it was just this moment that I just was allowed to think back over the faithfulness of my mom and my dad and how good that was and how I want to do that I want to be a man like that you know I want to be a parent like that and so I've met my wife through this church we have three amazing beautiful boys and I'm trying to do that I'm trying to do that every day and I just want to tell you if that's your story or if that's your children's story then be encouraged because that's an awesome story and I just I hope that we can talk about that more and that you guys do feel encouraged by that because God is good too the faithfulness of families thank you okay how many of you your story is men by the grace of God I was born into a home where I heard about Jesus I hardly remember what it was like to not understand that he loved me and he was after me if that she would you stand up oh we don't raise our hands right now we raise our hands when we sing right now we're standing Hey so look at me you do not have a boring testimony all right you you have the testimony that we all want for our children and our friends and our family that Jesus walked by you by His grace through no act of your own through faithful and perfect momma's and daddies who did the best they could with where they were and God saw you and he walked by you through the failures and the faithfulness of your mamas and daddies and you're here today because Jesus saw fit to grace you with that and he is not forgotten about you and you are in his sight to this day and God's plan is to continue that line of faithfulness through your imperfection until he returns praise God won't you have a seat now the the last thing we see here is I think the third way that we see Jesus walking by people in the text look at verse 43 the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him follow me now Philip was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter and Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth and Philip said to him come and see which is just the best line ever to a skeptic great question I don't know come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit and meth annual said to him how do you know me and jesus answered him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you and Nathanael answered him rabbi you are the son of God you are the king of Israel and jesus answered him because I said to you I saw you under a fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these and he said to him truly truly I say to you you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man now gonna set my Bible over here I'm just we'll walk over here for a second all right you with me Word of God some questions we don't know how jesus knows Philip or came across Philip or all the text lets us know is that he's from the same city as the other two disciples so my conjecture I think strong conjecture is that Andrew and Peter like man we got a good friend in our hometown man he is right for this bro like he is he's been wanting and longing for the Messiah to come we should go growl he's not I'm gonna ask a lot of questions man I mean he he's gonna come quick like you should get you could probably just say hey follow me he wouldn't know great it's folly so can we go get him all that's conjecture back to the text so Jesus walks into town walks right up to Philip and says follow me that's a very different invitation then come and see that's a very different invitation and we found the Messiah you've got two friends saying man we've got a high school buddy he's still back home can we go grab him he's gonna want to be a part of this he might not even know he wants to be a part but he's gonna want to be a part can can we go grab him and so then these two brothers go and find their high school friend only stand further their high school friend this thing has happened to us we we have found the Messiah come and see and Jesus says because it's Jesus's invitation to give follow me and and what is what does he do well he's got to go grab his boys ain't right but but he comes a lot different then at Nathaniel right Nathaniel's a little bit of a theologian right he knows about the law of Moses he knows what the prophets say and so notice that in each of these there's this different invitation extended but it's all the same invitation he meets us where we are right he comes at us where we are like we are like some of us man we were naturally skeptical or maybe there's been some things in our lives that have created a skepticism in us and and so maybe God comes towards us with some apologetics like I've just met people who have a hard time coming and seen following Jesus even as he walks by me because something really dark has happened to them or somebody they loved and they don't know how to reconcile God's goodness with that act of brokenness know if you've ever met anybody like that they're not terrible people they're not they just they don't know how to reconcile it and and so what we see here in the invitation of a it's it's different than anybody else's it's hey what Moses said what the Prophet said it's true here he is and even then he needed something supernatural right even then he like shows up at the church is all skeptical weirdos then what happens well Jesus reads his mail and then when Jesus gets involved right I mean how quickly was that shifting right he's like hey come meet Jesus he's the fulfillment of all that Moses and the prophets said right he's like Nazareth oh man I'm good Nazareth was like El Paso man hey there's like sunsets maybe sunsets and maybe occasional whitetail what else is out there right he's like well just come and check it out and he walks up geez like hey I know who you are in fact I saw you while you were is like whoa and geez like now all of a sudden Daniel just immediately goes from nothing good comes from Nazareth - you are the son of God the king of Israel I'm gonna follow you wherever and she's like really I just said I saw you napping before he got there you're gonna see far greater things than these but I'm off point and going long the other way jesus walks by do the proclamation of the word of God through families of faith and via faithful friends right what we see in this text is two brothers go and share with their friend who go and grab another friend and this is one of the ways that Jesus walks by so will you welcome Stan math I love Stan one of our elders godly man great sense of humor thank you thank you hi my name is Stinson Mathai I my wife and my three kids we attend church here we've been gone here for eight years of my vocation I work at hewlett-packard I'm a chief technologist there that just translates to me being a nerd and and that says a lot about who I am and how I was created so my story involves friends who came alongside me and pointed me to God and and it involves a pretty girl and a guy named Tom and so I grew up in the Indian Orthodox Church and the Indian Orthodox Church was it's it's very cultural for us to go to church on Sundays much like here in Texas that's what you do it's not just a place of worship it's a place for community we break bread there I have fond memories of my life there and and at this place I met a 13 year old pretty girl I didn't know then that I was gonna marry her we were gonna live in Flower Mound I have three kids but we started dating and in freshman year of college and a in her school a revival broke out and she was saved in this process and as Matt says robust conversations started between us during that time I wanted nothing to do with Christ I didn't like Christians I found all of y'all to be hypocrites and say one thing do the other thing kind of person I found fault in everything she at one point said that the Bible says that we need to be yoked if we were gonna be married I had no idea why the inside of an egg had anything to do with me or my relationship with her later learned there was a agricultural analogy so and then so she pushed me to kind of consider Jesus because she's a very important part of my life and then I met a guy named Tom and Tom is a kind of guy who if you meet him thirty seconds later he will tell you about Jesus and everything about Jesus and so Tom and I he told me to come to dinner at night and that usually meant I knew what was coming and Tom at dinner asked me a question that changed my life he said do you know what it means to be a Christian and if you're non-believer that is a very tough question to answer and so I told him why don't you tell me and then I was ready to rip him apart and he answered the question in a very different way than I've heard anybody answer it he said that I believe in a God that will give you whatever you ask for in faith no before your mind goes to prosperity gospel let me clarify he was saying that he believed in a god that said and promised that seek and ye shall find knock and the door will be opened and and he was hoping that I would knock on that door and so that night out of character I prayed I prayed a very particular prayer which we can get into here because we have no time and that answer to that prayer still has a profound effect on my life today and that's how God presented me with friends through that early part of my life so in summary a pretty girl softened my heart towards Christ a friend planted a seed and God blew it all up so I'll leave you with a thought that CS Lewis says about how I feel about Christianity but anything he says is inherently more intelligent than anything I have to say so he says it like this and I truly believe it he says I believe in Christianity as much as I believe in the Rising Sun not because I see it but because by it I see everything else I hope you're encouraged [Applause] like stan is standing up here today because someone risk rejection which is a pretty easy thing to risk in order that Sten might believe and and surely that friend was rejected on more than one occasion and yet in in this place we have an elder and a friend and a leader of our church who because someone just took the step of faith is here with us see Jesus continues to walk by and the sermon from friends and families and faithful preachers is still the same behold the lamb of God and so when I end our time today with the same question that God asked in the garden where are you where are you see see most of the time when God's pursuing us we're not even aware he's pursuing us as a faithful friend been saying to you come and see and for whatever reason you just keep coming and seeing and to you you haven't put it together like I I'm not sure I believe this but why do I keep coming or are you haunted by the faithfulness of mom and dad one of my favorite parts of Jason's testimony is that man you had these faithful mom and dad and it it was at 25 right like here's a bad encouraging minute you got a high school kid right now you're like oh my gosh I don't know I'm hoping right I am to myself and and right now right like I don't know where you are if if you know man I I was listening to this sermon it was in this season it was because of faithful friends man I I've got a lineage of faith in my life then praise God he sees you he knows you he loves you he began the work he cannot fail he will complete the work but then if you're here and and and you you you haven't said yes oh my gosh I'll come and see I'll follow you see like Jesus never said eight no about me he says follow me it's not the same thing cursory knowledge of the person and work of Jesus is not the same thing as saying yes to his lordship in Our Lives still he walks by us this morning saying what do you seek come and you will see let's pray father thank you for my brothers and sisters in this room I thank you for those who will be my brothers and sisters and may not know it yet and so just ask that you would open eyes that you let scales fall off that you would encourage hearts pray for my brothers and sisters build them up and love remind them of your faithfulness remind them of your goodness and Grace on their lives let us leave emboldened as we remember as we have been reimbursed in what is true about the gospel today and father for those blind to see heart hardened God I just ask for the merciful gift of salvation ask that you get involved Jesus help us we need you it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 20,882

Rating: 4.9066148 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Called to Follow, The Gospel of John, Heaven on Earth

Id: LgkHAv-qwI8

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018