Sermons - Matt Chandler - Imago Dei

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 good afternoon if you have your Bibles grab them we're gonna start the new year slow and I'm just gonna make this as easy as possible we're gonna be in Genesis 1 and so many of you have already read that passage simply because of your Bible reading plan but Genesis 1 is where we're gonna camp out today before we get going I want to take about 6 or 7 minutes here and just thank you and I want to I want to literally highlight or tease out exactly who I'm saying thank you to I want to say thank you to the covenant members of the village church so if you just come here a couple of times a year I'm grateful to God for you but what I'm thanking the congregation for now is something that they specifically have done beautifully and and so in my 17 years this pastor I think there's probably been four three or four what we call eros alright and so my first seven to eight years were marked by an insane amount of growth over a thousand a year in fact that finish that actually continued through year 10 but it was wild and men eight it was it was a it was a wheels off time in fact many of those sermons not earning online anymore I just was coffee'd up and immature and whether you know it or not knew more about what I didn't want to be then I knew what I was supposed to be are you trying with that and so the way that came out is a lot of harsh critique of evangelicalism in fact I think 90% of my sermons were what evangelicalism was doing wrong and why we weren't gonna do that right and then so that actually drew a kind of person right to the village Toller buddy we could never tell me us anything we were just telling everybody so there's kind of an arrogance there and then that season which by the way was great I mean we got up to doing six services like that that's insane and then that season gave way to the next season which we could just call the multi-site season probably one of my favorite moments at the village was that season of venture where for six weeks we prayed and we fasted we asked the Lord to do something within a couple of years ago us close to 14 million dollars worth of real estate just deeded it over to us from other churches in really key locations around the Metroplex that introduced the multi-site era of the village church we grew five campuses 12 to 15 thousand people on the weekend and and then that gave way in 2015 the Lord humbled us and we needed it we didn't know we needed it and we needed it and I'm talking about us as leaders and more than been more than you as laymen and women although maybe you also needed it at that time and we were confronted with the reality been in our size and in our scope and in our fame and our kind of brand that we had began to value process over people and that we had just done some things that weren't pleasing to the Lord and he exposed us for it and by the grace of God we tried to own that I mean I stood on this stage I just tried to own it own not just what I thought we were guilty of but even more than I thought we were guilty of because I thought that's the way to honor the Lord when he when he's humbling you is to embrace that and not kick up against it and in 2015 in that season of humbling then led into what we would we've called multiplied and it's are probably not registering with you guys that we're doing multiplied for several years now and multiply is the divestiture of our campuses to autonomous churches it's the purposeful plan to fast shrink the village church and make the village church a single congregation in the suburbs of Flower Mound that by the grace of God has a global reach and so I've said jokingly but with a great deal of pride that were the fastest shrinking church the United States of America by design on purpose with a lot of joy in it right now and so you and I have been in multiply now this brings me to my thank you you and I are in a season where an established visit vision and an established purpose that we were working and that was working by every human metric is coming to a close and a new vision and a new direction it is starting to kind of come up from that season that's going down so if you're around if you're dialed in if you're more than just a wants every in a while a tender of the village you can feel that we're at a crossroads you might feel the loss of something you might feel a thousand questions about what are we gonna do about this and what's gonna happen here and what's this about and many sure seems to be focusing on this a lot lately what does this mean where are we going here are we still gonna have this I hope they don't touch this because people love their church they just do right and and also people love the church that they joined and think it should never change this is just universally true if you ever knit you've never wondered why a church could split or cover aigis because when people join a church everything about that church they're joining because they like that and so if you try to touch that or change that they'll be like we've always done it this way and so my experience that the village is like no we did it that way for two years you just joined in the two years that we were trying that and so I know many of you are feeling that many of you have questions and so here here's what we're gonna do after quite a bit of time of praying wrestling arguing getting feedback in two weeks on January 19th we're rolling out as best we can here's the vision and mission of the village church as we see it in the foreseeable future I'm gonna try to get as clear as possible with you and invite you into what we believe God has next for us now some things that you can be assured of regardless as long as I'm pastor and I say it because there are parts of me that are just so part of me that if you take those out then I can't be here and that's not a veiled threat or anything like that in fact I celebrate the fact we have this great unity of elders that kind of have my heartbeat and I have their heartbeat so it's this really beautiful room but the village church will always be serious about the Bible always there's never a day coming where we don't sing the Word of God preached the Word of God recite the Word of God humble ourselves before the Word of God obey the Word of God even to our hurt in fact I would say multiply is an example of that right 30-something million dollars out the door with that not anything coming back into it either that's a we're gonna be obedient to hurt because we believe yours is the greater kingdom so always gonna be biblically serious that's never changing I love preaching through books to the Bible because they make me address things that I wouldn't even think to address all right so I'm always gonna preach I'm gonna eventually finish the Gospel of John I've got I've got my eyes set on some ethic Old Testament book so I'm all I love preaching teaching the Bible that'll always be that I'm I'm serious about us being spiritually alive and here's what I mean if there's life and vitality and energy here we're always gonna be dysfunctional there's too many people for us to not be dysfunctional but there can be life like when people get around this place we're like men it's whatever that it's humming but I just have no intention of getting crustier and angrier as I get older right I want to grow more patient more kind and and be able to laugh more and and so we're really spiritually alive and then last we will always embrace the mission God has given us outside these walls and those three things will always be here as long as I'm here because I I feel like that's me like what God did in me when he called me to himself so if at any point the elders were to go you know we just think gosh we're just you're you keep preaching through these Old Testament books and nobody's coming pastor I just thought then then I I need to go plant a church I'll let you know see those of you want to come can come but I just need to plan a church somewhere else and go out another way right if if it's like you know what we're smiling and we're laughing too much around here God is a wrathful God then I gotta move on while I agree that God is has wrath he's not wrath he is love he has wrath that's tied to his level again I'm not even I'm I need to wrap this up and we're gonna embrace that that we haven't we're not some kind of holy huddle meant to get away from the world so the window get dirty was sin but that were meant to live right in the middle of the muck and the mire bringing good news into broken places and so whatever methods aren't sacred the message is and I'm not setting you up for massive crazy change I really am NOT but I'm just letting you know January 19th next weekend I think we're preaching a psalm unless the Holy Spirit does something this week I don't know if you've experienced this have you ever taught sometimes the Holy Spirit shows like that's cute we're going a different way so maybe that'll happen I think more than likely will be in a psalm next week and then January 19th we start from January 19th to March 8th we're gonna walk through the new mission statement and vision and show you that kind of theological foundation upon which it's built what our hope is and I pray that by March 8th you'll be able to say Amen or you know what I'm not and here's what I want you know if you ever say yeah I'm not in does make you wrong or doesn't mean like it's just the Lord showing you giving you the clarity this is where this is where I'm taking this people and if you're like man that's just not the vision I have for my own life and maybe there's a community of faith out there that's built more for how God's wired me then then bless his name we're trying to build the kingdom right not not a brand and so I just wanted to say thank you because you have endured the last year certainly has felt odd and so I just want to just acknowledge yeah it's felt odd and here's why it's felt odd because we've had to realize we are replanting the village church but we're not replanting it like we did 17 years ago and there's 168 of us we're replanting it at four or five thousand of us and that's just a different dynamic and so just that's me letting you know where we're going and then we'll have Palm Sunday Easter and then we're gonna do a small series on proverbs or some themes and the Proverbs and then we'll head into the summer no idea what we're preaching in the summer but by then we will all right now normally in January we will take January and and I will address certain topics I've addressed the same topics for a decade I've addressed the topic of life I've addressed the topic of racial reconciliation or ethnic harmony or whatever title we want to put on it and then I have addressed global missions and and because this January we're rolling out new vision mission vision and all of that will start this month what I wanted to do is just still address that but rather than kind of knit you know pulling out these kind of implications of it what I want to do is just lay the theological groundwork of why Christians care about certain matters all right and so I want to lay down that theological groundwork I want to show two implications and then hopefully that'll orient our hearts around seen rightly when we leave the room today and so with that said let's look at Galatians 1:24 through 31 Genesis what I say ah that's a book I want to pray I've already preached through the book of Galatians says it's my point thank you sorry Genesis they both start with G this is my third service be gentle Genesis 1 starting in verse 24 and God said let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds and it was so and God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind and God saw that it was good then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth and God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant for food and it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day now there's a couple of things I want to pull on here as we talk about why Christians would care about some of those matters that I mentioned earlier zwi lay the theological groundwork for maybe Christian activism maybe that's a word that we could use maybe you can't that's too much for you but let's just call it Christian activism and so the first thing it is to acknowledge rightly that that you and I are created beings we are not the Creator we have been created and that's great news here's the great news um it's gonna free you up for 2020 you're not the point like that is the most freeing thing ever and I just want to perpetually argue with you the more that you're the point the more you will jack up your life and the more you're not the point the more opportunity you you have to be free like literally free like there's a creator and it's not you that that means we are someone else's point we are not the point so that would be the first thing the second thing here is that we have been made unique among all creation see there's a rhythm in Genesis one in the Hebrew it's a and and God spoke and God spoke and God spoke and God spoke and what's he speaking let let there be let there be so let there be cattle let there be fish let there be Birds let there be light let there be seas and oceans let there be let there be let there be and then in 26 a hard turn let us make so so right like that's a hard turn it actually breaks the rhythm of the Hebrew to provide emphasis let us now now there's there's two schools of thought when it comes to this us conversation that's being had one is that God speaking to this kind of divine counsel of spiritual beans right that all the sons of man angels and spirits that he's he's speaking to this divine counsel right okay the it might be true the more orthodox historic position is that the triune God of the universe in a dialogue within himself out of the gladness of his own essence says let us make man in our image and he creates the man and the woman in his image now structurally that that's true although I think secondary in regards to importance and what I mean by that is God the Father is spirit he doesn't have a physical body like you and I have and the Holy Spirit is spirits actually in his name so the Holy Spirit doesn't have a physical body but the second person of the Trinity God the Son descends and puts on flesh and dwells among us so that there is some sense that this kind of physicality that we have it somehow aligned up with the image of God but more important than structural that there is a functional reality about being made in the image of God it means that we are different than and of greater value than anything else in all of creation all right and and that that's true because of the threefold relational categories that you and I possess that we the other it created order does not possess so let me give you these three categories that the first is when we think about these threefold relationships that humankind can have an animals can the first would be the relationship we have with God so my alarm went off this morning it at 5:15 a.m. and I'm I'm a serious man when it comes to habits and so I in you nazma my family this I sit in the same spot at our island every morning when I wake up I mean my Bible it just looks like my stuff is there much to my wife's chagrin it's just there and so this morning I'm up and I've got my Bible open I've got my Apple pen I've got my iPad um I'm taking notes with the Lord for our time together today some of what I've got to say is heavy and hard and I just so want the Holy Spirit to open up your heart to change your mind to draw you in to the beauty of Jesus and I'm just wrestling with God but I'm not alone there in my kitchen we have a dog named Gus Gus is obese and he struggles with anxiety I'm just telling you about Gus and I don't know how well you know dogs like dogs choose a person and our dog Gus has chosen my wife Lauren and so although Gus is a family dog Gus prefers Lauren in fact needs Lauren and so what he does when Lauren's not around is he sheds he shakes and he just licks everything I mean he's just and it'll just unless you like that weird thing that people are doing now into microphones it wigs me and so like this morning I'm continuing I'm just like Gus will you take this to the Lord will you cast your anxieties upon him you're driving me crazy like you're shedding all over the house we have to vacuum 30 times a day but Gus isn't gonna take his anxieties to God he's a dog he's not seeking the Lord the Lord is not seeking Gus he is a great dog in all his anxious obesity he will not seek the Lord and find him nor is the Lord interested in seeking and finding Gus no that's been given to the sons and daughters of God that's been given to those made in the image of God humans seek the Lord the Lord seeks humans the Lord's not seeking horses and antelopes it's not like he's got great concern for the unreached antelopes in sub-sahara Africa that's not how this works you and I you and I have a unique position in creation before God we also have a unique relationship with nature itself you and I according to this passage have been told to subdue the earth and and fill it to fill the earth and subdue it and that means bring order means we have a responsibility over creation we are to be responsible tenants of the earth until God makes all things new this falls on us alone in the creative order I remember when we I was learning and I think this is a shared human experience at least if you were educated in the US and the public school system that's and maybe I don't know let's just get on with the illustration when we were talking about extinction in school when I was in school which has been a bit they would always bring up the dodo bird is this a shared experience or am I on my own okay so the dodo bird was apparently a really stupid creature it could not fly it was not fast it was not smart and so the apex predators they loved the dodo bird like the wolves and the Coyotes and the Lions and anything else that was a carnivore they they loved the dodo bird out of extinction and what I'm saying is that that at no point did the Lions or the Wolves or the Coyotes go you know what there's only like five of these left we should probably set aside some space for them to multiply their numbers because they're a huge part of this ecosystem like what are we gonna eat after we ate all of them never happened they just devoured them all until they were gone it's been given to humankind to go oh if that happens to the ecosystem this could be a really bad thing therefore let's step in and let's manage creation it's been given to you and I it hasn't been given to anything else in all of creation we are caretakers of creation nothing else humankind is those made in the image of God this is our function this is the duty that God gave us and then lastly there is something about our not only our relationship with God not only our relationship with creation but our relationship to one another right like the Bible puts a ton of weight on human interaction that it doesn't put on animal interaction in fact this would be a great example about thinking about the elevated place of human life as opposed to other forms of life this is Genesis 9:6 whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image here there's our phrase again God made man in his own image so that a man who kills another man right it is held to a pretty high standard why because man has been made in the image of God again that weight is not put on anything else in all of creation right if two lions get into it if two dogs you know the cops don't show up but who started it who bit who first all right oh okay get over here Bootsy cuff him get him out you know that's not how it works dogs or dogs lions are Lions never been anything arrested in sub-sahara Africa for devouring an antelope right you know like what caused your you to act so violently right instinct and hunger right so we just there's a value in human life that transcends is greater than the value of other living things it's not that other living things have no value I've already said we've been given creation care not to be cruel not to Lord this authority over the creative order in such a way that they were irresponsible or unnecessarily violent and cruel no no though that would be contrary to how God designed us and what he called us to do in the function given to us that's those made in the image of God but it does mean that the most debilitated living human being out there blind deaf mute mentally broken physically bedridden is still more valuable than Seabiscuit was a Seabiscuit was a famous racehorse I didn't know of another animal to throw out there it was a popular anyway this is happening more and more to me okay so what are the implications of this then what are the implications of the imago day that humankind all humans are made in the image of God we have this function and this unique relationship with God this you can unique relationship with creation it's a new unique relationship with one another what are the implications where I've got to one's gonna be a flyby the other one is where I'm gonna spend my time the first would be in and around the idea of creation care that because we have been made in the image of God we are responsible to live responsibly in creation all right so we do have a responsibility to not just use and abuse and destroy and devour everything our eyes see there is a responsibility that's been given to us by God to steward and care for creation right period that's a flyover there's more there I don't have time the second one is where I want to spend my time the second one is around if if it's true that humankind has been made in the image of God that we possess the imago day that we have this unique relationship with God unique relationship creation unique relationship with one another in a way that the rest of the creative order doesn't know and doesn't understand and doesn't get then that means there is an intuitive value in human dignity given to every man woman and child on earth regardless of socioeconomics regardless of ethnicity regardless of national origin tracking with me okay we know this without the Bible telling us like we know intuitively that putting your dog down is different than putting your mom with dementia down don't we if you need the Bible to tell you those are different like there are laws on the books in mutt for now because we're losing our minds we'll talk more about that in a second but for now like even the law says yeah you can't put your mom down oh you can put your dog down boots he's been great but man blind and in pain and got cancer it's costing you 20 grand to keep him alive just let him go to doggy heaven right like the laws like do that don't drag him out back and put a bullet in him but you can very nice we let him fall asleep and just be in glory with the other dogs in heaven and and then but you can't you just can't do that with your mom you can't do that with your child you can't do that with your friend you can't do that with it right why well because we know intuitively that there's something different about us in fact let me prove it with Nietzsche I don't know if you knew this but Nietzsche wasn't really high on Christianity his famous his famous phrase was what thank you are we not like we're what do you I please email me what you read cuz I'm always like trying like I feel like I'm grabbing like low-hanging fruit right like you don't even have know anything about Nietzsche to know he said God is dead like that's his big he is famous for God is dead now here's what's wild like Nietzsche actually loved Jesus and Jesus is life as long as he stayed dead he was a needless so he loved the fact that God died he just really struggle with that whole resurrection for everybody on earth sin just really struggle with that part but loved that Jesus was a good teacher walked in power and died because it proved in his mind his knee lism but it's that whole pesky resurrection thing that bothered him but but here's what Nietzsche said another Christian concept but one no less crazy is the concept of equality of souls before God this concept furnished the prototype of all theories of equal rights now here's what's crazy like Nietzsche who does not love us or our Bible is saying hey this idea of equal rights this idea of equality before God this is a judeo-christian idea now here I want to highlight this for you the reason that that we are losing our minds right now we're there's strong argument that turtle eggs are more important than human babies and that right the reason we've lost our month is because we want the kingdom without the king like Nietzsche can see it needs you can see the value of these things he can look around and say this is good and right and beautiful but because he doesn't want the King here about against the kingdom and then what happens then all of a sudden we we start acting like we've lost our minds because you don't get the kingdom without the king just doesn't work that way you get the king and he rushes in the kingdom right and and so let me let me let me use some examples here because we believe in the elevated standing of humankind among the rest of creation that means we have a strong opinion about life and abortion we just do because we believe that all human beings are equal in dignity value and Worth and so we have an opinion here we also have an opinion about sex trafficking that's a gospel issue why because it's an imago Dei issue anywhere where the imago Dei is twisted is suppressed is broken is marginalized in fact it's the belief in the imago Dei that overthrew slave trading in England with William Wilberforce and the clapman chap I mean those guys they were arguing in mago day it was the imago Dei theology of the Mago day that led to to slavery being overthrown in the United States and also was the fight in the civil rights movement right that we've been made in the image of God let me give you some examples there's a famous case of Dred Scott vs. Sanford it was an 1857 this win all the way to the Supreme Court Dred Scott was suing the United States as a slave the Supreme Court decided the Dred Scott could not sue the federal government because he was less than a whole person right like how crazy like in 2019 you're like wow but but that was the case and in the dissenting by the way at one that was the decision of the Supreme Court but in the dissenting paper that always is accompanies when the the Supreme Court loses about there's always a dissenting paper and in that dissenting paper Supreme Court Justice John McLean wrote this that a slave is not mere shadow he bears the impress of his maker and he is destined to an endless existence to here what's that argument that argument see a Mago de right the slaves not shadow he he bears the Empress the imprint of his creator get an eternal soul it's not less than human he's made in the image of God this is the argument of the dissenting Supreme Court justice in 1857 about beholdeth of the slave it's the imago day that drives this thing forward the imago Dei is at the root of every confrontation of injustice Christians care were called into action were called into prayerful battle around these issues because we believe that all human beings have been made in the image of God and in so doing get dignity I get value get protection to get care that's why we care I know that like some of this is gonna get me in trouble I'm just leaning in it's why we care about racial profiling it's why we care about pornography you will never come across a three or four old little girl in a frozen to dress who can't wait to grow up and be in that world the kind of horrific stuff that has to happen for a woman to end up in that industry is beyond most of our imaginations and pornography sets them up to be consumed instead of valued and if stats are right over 50% of this room struggles with consistent viewing of a a victimless crime it is not victimless it's destroying you and it certainly is consuming these long souls now I'm not saying this to shame you I'm inviting you into the grace of God and into the light because you won't beat this enemy in the dark but but this isn't a mug of pornography as an imago Dei issue prostitution is an imago Dei issue massage parlor that's anima go de issue strip joints that's on a Mago day issue Christians should care shouldn't sequester ourselves from the grime eNOS of the world we should be in the front things pushing back it's dark confronting it we care about such things because we believe that no human being should ever be used or abuse my nature of the fact that they've been made in the image of God now with that understanding how are we to live two things I'll get them both from Ephesians 5:11 here's Ephesians 5:11 take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them okay so two things one take no part so let's talk about this rather than maybe the best way for you to think anytime we're talking about the Word of God bearing weight on us it's always to think about the world that you inhabit your vocation the place that God has placed you right how are you in that space to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness in light of the imago day and some of these issues well let me give you some examples the first would be wherever you are you can either approach things positively or you can approach things negatively and so let me let me show you an example of that if you're a teacher or an educator man I just think the Lord has uniquely placed you in a way to speak life and and and speak kindness in two places where maybe there's very little experience and listen kudos to you from being an ED right now especially in this area I mean I love where we live but the sheer volume of helicopter parenting fills the air like even my kids like their teachers it's like hey here's my home address here's my phone number here's my just call me at any time I'm like I don't want to call you it and do parents want to call the teacher at any time like I'm gonna believe you I know my kids we don't need to right I mean it's this like it's this weird but but man you you have the opportunity to speak life into these little souls that maybe no one else ever says anything encouraging to them never sees them for what they could be never celebrates their little wins for all of their losses you tracking with me like that's a way for you not to participate in darkness another way would be for you to not do some so here would be an example if you're in construction there are both legal and illegal immigrants that work as day laborers that no one takes advantage of that community more than then-then-then people that are either running slum apartment complexes or those who are in construction and and there's a way that you can refuse to use their labor without paying a fair wage in fact if you would just study both the Old Testament and New Testaments see what God has to say about those who don't give a fair wage to a day's worth of honest work there's a lot of really terrible things warned against those who would do such a thing and let me let me say this and I'm I'm also at the same time not asking you to hire illegal immigrants that's actually illegal right and so what that means is I am going to even though it's gonna cost me more money even though it's gonna affect the bottom line I am NOT gonna participate in darkness I'm just not gonna do it I'm gonna make less money and I'm going to instead do things in a way that pleases God now a second or another illustration that could give you and I'm I'm just trying to kind of prime the pump for what I know is coming in the fall the way that we talk about things has to stop lining up so neatly with partisan politics let me let me give this example and this is what I know it's gonna get me in trouble and here's what I already know doesn't matter what I say here you're gonna hear what you want to hear but I'm gonna try to make it real clear I believe that borders are good right things and that laws that protect borders are necessary for human flourishing I believe they're given to us for God's good design for human flourishing period now the borders are unmanageable right now and whether it's a cage or a detention center almost always lines up with your partisan politics what I it's complex and and what I'm fearful of it is that if you're popping off on Facebook or wherever you are and you're popping off about you still are dog there's bunch of criminals but you like to think about a mom right or wrong to think about a mom that had to navigate some of those violent difficult awful train imaginal just in the hope that it might be better for their children should at least incite in us compassion should analyse it and not pretend like do you know that immigrations been an issue in the United Sates since the beginning I couldn't never been able to figure this out but you can't even can't it be gracious about it right you gonna be partisan right you just got a dry well Palma did it well well you know it and it's just like oh we just join kind of the symphony of madness that is our day and age and I'm just asking you one of the ways you can play no part in it is to not play a part in it this is a really complex realities and here's what's crazy when I watch some of you guys are on don't be like hey did you read did you read kind of the immigration reform that's been put about no no are there really cages is it a detention center are they drinking out of toilets are they launched are just read about it like the way that we're echoing stuff that somebody's lying like somebody's lying and and I don't even know who it is but for us to latch on to the version that we want and champion it like we know what the heck we're talking about makes us look worldly and not godly so I'm just asking you can we for the glory of God in order to not participate in the deeds of darkness just shut up and we don't know I mean maybe we can't maybe you can there are times that my wife has asked me can you just not talk and the answer some time being around like I can't I gotta say it I have alright so maybe the answer is no but I'm I want you to know that in so doing you are participating in darkness I'm just trying to call you out of it the this issue is sticky and it's complex and it's confusing and I don't know who's telling the truth but I know that every man woman and child on earth is by nature of their humanity worthy of dignity passion and hope that doesn't mean we open up our borders and say everything is yours come on in that doesn't mean I'm not saying that nobody's saying that if you've already pegged me there that's you That's not me that says more about you than it does about me I'm trying to think carefully about such things it's a mess but it's not just a mess for us it's always been a mess so what if we just didn't say so much we just prayed we gave the benefit of the doubt we acknowledged complexity that it's not that cut and dry that there are multiple versions of the story and there's no real way for us to know the truth but we're four people and we're for compassion and we're for empathy and we do pray and we do long for people to be safe and for the kingdom to expand and for hope to be established among all peoples everywhere all right now this is the the second thing not taken apart and then expose them so that the church is meant to be a prophetic voice in a time in which she exists did you know that like the church exists to collectively be a prophetic voice well the church cannot prophetically be a voice in the culture that says that's beautiful and that's wicked if we actually are participating in the deeds of darkness if there is no difference between us and the world how can we call the world into the fullness of what Christ asked for them and therefore by not participating we can then be the light that says there's a better way there's a more beautiful reality there's a more generous Savior there's actually a king to this kingdom you're after because if you look at kind of some of the platforms about equal rights for all these feet you know and this and then you know but like all of it it like Nicci's onto something here right there that like we know it's in our guts and it's in our guts because we live in a Jesus haunted world but we won't get the kingdom without the king and so you and I which could herald the coming of the king and to celebrate that many equal rights is a really beautiful idea rooted in what the imago Dei didn't just combust out of nowhere it it it grew the soil of a biblically saturated culture a lot of imperfections a lot of foolishness along the way but this was the soil from which it was born let me pray for us father thank you for your grace thank you for your mercy and kindness to us I do pray that you give us eyes to see I pray where we have the opportunity to with our words with our actions show and encourage dignity and value and Worth and to people and you would give us the opportunity to do that I just pray that you would expose where we think in ways that are out of step with the gospel and more lined up with the brokenness of this world I just pray then more and more we would not participate in such things and sometimes that just means being quiet I just pray we'd be known more for fidelity to you King Jesus than we are to partisan politics be known for our compassion our gentleness our tenderness righteous indignation certainly has its place but in a world that's constantly indignant I wonder how far it'll get us Marcus with your love and your empathy and your compassion these are complex difficult waters so give us your wisdom and grace it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 19,021

Rating: 4.8322582 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: XO_grEhvezw

Length: 42min 53sec (2573 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020