Sunday Service – 1/10/2021 – Matt Chandler

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning church my name is lindsay innigenberg and i am the executive director over several staff teams the connections team hr communications administration in the production team who is responsible for the for the complete overhaul of this massive wall behind me and i believe they did a phenomenal job with that thank you guys i have the pleasure of welcoming you to the village church this morning we really are so glad that you have joined us here today and online i uh while you're here today i do want to remind you to please wear your mask this allows us to provide a safe space for us to come together and worship in person now then if you are local and you are looking for ways to get to know more about the village church perhaps you have some questions about our christian faith or you want to know ways to get involved there are three ways that you can connect with us the first is to text belong to 56549 and you'll receive a response back with some next steps or while you're here you can go and visit connection central which is the room just behind the welcome desk in the foyer and in that room there will be staff and volunteers who are able to answer your questions and even offer you prayer the third way is for you to attend a first steps class one those are the classes that we hold uh currently virtually on the first sunday of each month and they cover our church's history our beliefs and ways for you to get involved if you're interested in doing so okay i have two announcements for us and then we'll move into a time of worship the first announcement is we are holding a home group leader interest meeting on sunday january 31st from 8 to 9 p.m via zoom we believe leading a home group is one of the more impactful ways you can serve the body of christ here at the village church by creating a space for community you make this big place feel smaller and through the support of ongoing coaching you you learn to use your spiritual gifts and encourage that of others within that community setting if you are interested in learning what it looks like to become a home group leader we would love for you to join us for this informational meeting you can go online to our website and register for that class the second announcement is more of a reminder that we are hosting encounter tonight sunday january 10th from 5 to 6 30 pm it will be held here in the worship center and online for those who cannot attend in person encounter is a time and space for our church body to come together and pray with one another and for one another and praise the lord together hear testimonies and stories from within our church and practice the spiritual gifts we do require seat reservations for that time and those have actually already filled up it seems as though we are desperate for a night of prayer if you did not grab seats tonight do not worry you can join us online that live stream link is available on our website on our events page i covered a lot if you feel like you missed anything you can always go onto our website to see what's going on what's coming up and to sign up to receive our newsletter but for now if you will please stand and we're going to move into a time of worship amen church we're going to lift our voices this morning declaring that there is no other king but king jesus that his kingdom is forever he's the light that shines in the darkness so let's sing together in the presence of my enemies louder than the unbelief [Music] [Music] sing about the hope we have in christ [Music] jesus of me [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is in the midst of it all our response is [Music] a done louder a little life [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my enemies [Music] in the middle of the storm [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] i'm and then yes we have a hope we have a reason to sing to make melody because our king is alive and we have a king jesus who is ruling and reigning sitting at the right hand of the father on high he's holding all things together and that because of his shed blood on the cross we have been made new we have been made holy and blameless in the father's sight we have been become a people for his own possession we've been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light so as the people of god we cast aside our idols as hebrews 12 says we cast aside every sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to jesus the founder and perspective of our faith and so we're gonna introduce a new song this morning that just says that that magnifies the name of christ jesus so that he might become greater that we might become less so let's sing it together [Music] singing on christ being magnified let us praise our eyes christ be magnified [Music] oh christ be magnified from the altar of my life christ being magnified in me [Music] suddenly articulate with a thousand tons to lift one cry then from north to south and east we'd hear christ be magnified [Music] christ be magnified [Music] [Music] me [Music] magnified [Music] every human [Music] oh [Music] christ be magnified [Music] of my [Music] this is our declaration surrounding ourselves to him because he is good and he's worthy to be [Music] the praised i'll rejoice cause you're there too i won't be formed by feelings hold fast to what is i'll be crucified with you cause death is just [Music] my [Music] is [Music] [Music] christ is be magnified be glorified [Music] so give us clean hands [Music] give us pure hearts let us give us clean hands give us pure hearts let us not lift our souls tonight oh god let us be the generation that sees seeks your face oh [Music] god let us be a generation that sees seeks your face oh [Music] god yes we praise you we lift high the name that is above every name [Music] knowing that at the name of jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess [Music] father i pray that we would surrender the things that are weighing us down the sin the weight that clings so closely because we have hope and we have a truth to put our faith in that we have been set free from our sin because of the shed blood on the cross the christ has cleansed us from our sin cleansed us from our shame and made us holy and blameless in your sight lord so help us to live our lives for his glory we fix our eyes on jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith that when the world comes to try to sway us we are on solid ground that our kingdom is not of this earth but our kingdom is what is to come and our king is jesus to be lifted high this morning we ask your spirit would move through your word we pray all these things in jesus name amen amen well good morning let me just start by thanking you for risking your life and getting out in this weather and and so it's no small thing for me to just acknowledge gratitude that you love the lord in such a way that you would put yourself in harm's way to worship him in person if you're home right now that's no slight on you uh if you're in front of a fire and you're drinking that's no listen you're just receiving your reward now so i want you to enjoy that take a sip from me when we get to glory come on over where the bigger houses are and we'll hang out then i'm totally driven um if you have your bibles nehemiah chapter one is where we're gonna be let me tell you what the plan was uh the plan uh was to exit g uh or dig into uh genesis chapter one uh and talk about life and what life is and then what are the implications of our belief in defining life the way the word of god defines it and so our system kind of works like this that sermon was done a beautiful video shot of amber dion sharing a testimony all that went in around wednesday by noon they had it all and then i dropped off the grid i was filming uh for lifeway lifeways taking sections of the john study that we did uh well it felt like seven years ago we were doing john or something uh it was actually just a year and a half or so ago but doesn't that feel like forever ago uh and they were gonna take the first three chapters of john are they going to make a small group curriculum tried to do intros and outros so i was kind of stuck away phone put up and just kind of um recording intros and outros when i got back to my phone there were 60 70 text messages now maybe that's normal for you um that is not normal for me and i am on some group threads but if you get too chatty in the group thread you're getting notifications turned off right um and so i started no they were kind of from everywhere and i had uh 20 from our elders and all of them were like oh my gosh the capital the capital cap and i had no clue uh and so then now i'm playing catch up at like 3 30 in the afternoon and so i hop on i see kind of the madness that's going on um and then i have this moment where i'm like okay lord do we proceed with the weekend as is or do you want me to step into this space and address the mess that's playing out before us so i don't make those decisions alone i literally sent a text message to the elder star uh responded in like 2.6 seconds like he had been waiting for me to say i was like i'm not sure what to do i think i partly need to address this but but man this it's gonna be such a powerful weekend and and they're like look we'll pray but you should you should address this and so uh the elders are like you should address this and then uh thursday i don't know if you know this but thursday uh at noon uh a bulk of the staff meets right here and we just pray our faces off i mean that's what we do several of us fast and it i mean it was amazing thursday and so uh from there uh i went back and started moving things around started writing this sermon that i turned in this morning at around what do you think was about six right around six i was like here are my notes and so that i'm gonna dive and i wanna address where we find ourselves now let me when i heard about wednesday and when i turned on the tv i felt that feeling that i'm getting tired of feeling it's one that i don't know was normal in my life until the last three or four years it's a it's a feeling of sadness mixed with disappointment mixed with anger mixed with fear it is a new kind of emotion for me and man i i remember feeling it when george floyd was murdered watching that video i felt it i felt sadness with anger and disappointment and frustration and like what in the world and then i felt it again in july when under the banner of justice cities burned to the ground and businesses were destroyed and i felt it on repeat through the chaos of a pandemic i have wondered how in the world our 13 year olds are processing all of this unprecedented wave after unprecedented wave after unprecedented wave after unpre like 14 scary enough without all this and then i felt it again in the fall as the political fervor was heating up and division was just visible wherever you looked and then i felt it again on wednesday here's what i want to try to do you and i right now we have a front row seat at what happens when humanity wants the kingdom and not the king you and i literally courtside seats at the devolution of a culture because what they want is the kingdom freedom identity human flourishing they just don't want the king to tell them how that works and when you want the kingdom without the king you you seize things in a way that you shouldn't seize them you take control in ways you shouldn't say control and a culture devolves now the near impossible impulse in this moment is to choose a side i mean like the the the impulse the the pull of the air you're bri it's nearly impossible not to take a side you you like if you're a conservative this is easily the fault of the elitist baby murdering left and the media they control they hijacked an election the woke marks a socialist crowd they make everything about race they seek to destroy anyone who doesn't comply and they hate the united states but if that's not the group you want to join there's another one for you and this group is actually it is the ultra right-wing white supremacist nationalists who simply want to protect their wealth privilege and power now regardless of which one of those you want to join or maybe god help you you land in you will find all the evidence you want that you are right you will find pastors to encourage you by proof texting the bible that you're right in the middle of god's word you will find books that confirm your beliefs are true your fears are correct you will whatever you want to find you will find to support your team on top of all of that unbeknownst to most of us there's an algorithm that makes sure you don't see anything that challenges your disposition but only reinforces what you have already come to embrace this is the mess we find ourselves in my guess is that a lot of us are like no i don't although i'm happy to call those people marxist socialist baby killers i don't want to be painted with that broad brush and then some of you are like well man i kind of lean this way on these issues but i certainly aren't all those things it seems like maybe life's a little bit more complex than name calling so like maybe if we get out of junior high for a freaking second i mean maybe that listen i ain't kidding around maybe that's too much to ask maybe we're so far gone maybe we're so arrogant and far gone that this is just gonna be what it's gonna be until the whole thing burns to the ground and it'll be our fault there's this fascinating passage in the book of joshua it's always confused me and then man i'm watching the news this week i'm like oh my gosh this is it so in the book of joshua god clearly has commanded israel to wipe out the canaanites i mean they are a kind of evil that's hard to get the mind around i don't know we'd like to kind of throw like crazy like everybody's a nazi in 2021 aren't we like no matter what side you're on you're not you're you're nazi well man the canaanites made the nazis uh look like quakers i mean this is a kind of evil to be hard to get the mind around and so god and and there's all sorts of things i don't have time to get into about the nephilim and that's a huge part of what's happening in canaan canaanite but you do your own research on that the nephilim look it up it's fascinating weird awesome and in this god has clearly commanded the people of god to clear out the promised land and so joshua he's got these steps of faith and they get across the river and they're making their way to jericho you remember jericho huh walk around them walls seven top blow the trumpets walls came tumbling down we got our girl rahab in the wall it's going to hook everybody up everybody remember their sunday school all right on their way to jericho to do what god has commanded this is what we run into this is joshua 5 13-14 when joshua was by jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a man was standing before him with a drawn sworn at his sword in his hand and joshua went to him and said are you for us or for our adversaries and he said no or i'm not for anyone i am the commander of the army of the lord now i have come and joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped him what does my lord say to his servant listen i used to read that and think what in the world is wrong with joshua like why would you even ask this of course god is on your side you're joshua the son of nun you are moses's right hand it has been given to you to take out this land the lord has clearly said i will go before you it's mine i will fight for you i've got this don't worry about yeah they're giants but you got this yeah they've got giant walls but i am the lord your god let's go and they go and then he runs across this great warrior of god and says are you for us or are you for them like that's a dumb question of course he's for joshua and the people of god except he says he's not seems like there's this third team here because the the commander of the lord's army says i ain't on your side bro i know i'm on the lord's side and and so he creates this kind of third place that is just super hard for us to get in our heads right now because we have been able to justify that our rightness or our leftness is is the right one and and why don't you believe that gosh almost everything you want to see you'll see either because of the algorithm or i mean you can't even control finding dissenting abuse and then how easy it is it to just dismiss somebody with a word these days oh man woke crt loving i mean how easy is that you don't have to deal with any real arguments you have to deal with the person is someone made in the image of god you just make the accusation and move on categorize them as the enemy like like this this cannot be the way that we do this so it seems like there's something bigger going on here joshua he just couldn't see it and so the commander of the lord's army is like no no no you for us no i'm not oh my gosh that must mean you're for them no no it doesn't i'm for the lord now he here's one you and i there's some big but you and i have this huge role to play in this moment this huge role to play in this one factor in just a couple weeks we dive into revelation i could not be more excited to preach a book i might just explode it is so perfect for where we are it is hope in the middle of disintegration it is hope in the middle of persecution it is victory in the middle of getting your teeth kicked in by the culture and the government the economy and the government of the world turn their face upon you to devour you in what happens you suffer and die with gladness and christ is exalted and wins i don't want to give it away stop now i want to show you this one of the great benefits of this this word of god that's been given to us god not wanting us to guess about him but but to knowing one of the great gifts of how the book's been put together is this narrative arc where we can see oh my gosh there's nothing new under the sun like this has happened before like i am not trying to say the united states of america are the people of god i would never say that don't believe that think any kind of talk like that is silliness but i do want to talk to the people of god in the room i do want to talk to the people of god on their couch in front of the fire now i do want to talk to the people of god as the people of god because here's what has happened as the nation of israel has devolved and disintegrated over and over and over again when god has begun to work in their midst it's always laid on the same foundation always laid on the same foundation you test me on that by digging into an out point of the spirit of god on israel in the old testament that is not built on this foundation the foundation is prayer but but not any kind of prayer like the kind of prayer that's going to bother us this morning so here's what i want to do i want to read one example of this and then we're actually going to pray and we'll read and we'll pray we'll try to mirror what we're seeing in nehemiah chapter 1. so let's look at this together the words of nehemiah the son of hakkalia now it happened in the month of chills live i said that wrong in the tw i'm not going back in the 20th year as i was in susa the citadel that had and i one of my brothers came with certain men from judah and i asked them concerning the jews who escaped who had survived the exile and concerning jerusalem and they said to me the remnant there in the province who have survived the exile is in great trouble and shame for the wall of jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire as soon as i heard these words i sat down and wept and mourned for days and i continued fasting and praying before the god of heaven um one of the things i i'm i'm perpetually talking about to my children uh a topic is is the topic of fortitude it is the topic that really difficult hard things are gonna happen in life and there's nothing you can do about that but there is a way that we endure that and we kind of develop fortitude and we refuse to be crushed by by this or that and and one of the things that our culture has no space for right now is sadness and we just got no space for it certainly evangelical remember i ain't talking to broad culture i'm talking to the church one of the things that the church doesn't even want to do is acknowledge that there's sadness and disappointment and difficulty and frustration and sometimes we think that that god's not doing what he said he was going to do and in a moment like that the bible gives us this word lament and lament is this powerful powerful powerful emotional discharge that reorients our heart around the person and work of jesus christ when we lament when we take what's actually in our heart before god the spirit of god works but if you feel like you always got a smile with spirit sprinkle fingers or you're letting god down you're outside of the framework of scripture that gives you lament as a way of fighting discouragement and despair this is why david says you will not despise the pro broken and contrite in spirit weakness sadness frustration confusion if brought to the lord does not disappoint the lord he will meet you in that place we have no space for that so nobody wants to lament which is why we're half cocked ready to fight everybody because we forgot no no the lord fights for us and and listen i feel like i feel like i can throw hands i mean i got a bit of a pass where the lord saved me it was punch first keep punching until somebody drags you off use your feet if you have to ain't no fair fight there's just surviving i feel like i can maybe i still got that in me i don't know but i ain't this dude we're reading about and joshua fun right i can't just make walls fall down and so this prayer starts with lament so i don't know how you're saying here are three things that that contribute to this emotion that i'm talking about one there is a deceit happening right now where we don't know where to turn for what's true now let me distinguish some things i ain't talking about what's true i'm talking about what's actually happening out there there is nowhere we can turn right now where someone doesn't have an agenda and so how are we supposed to know what's real and what's not real what's true what's not true and if you're like well i know then i'm saying you're thicker into this deceit than you know i just am and i love you i'm just going to be willing to say it if you're like well you must not be on this then i'm telling you bro you are in the clutches that it's a heartbreaking thing to know that we have a culture of liars just what it is just a culture and evangelicals ain't out on this we are right in the middle we are as just as tribalistic just as violent towards one another just as vilifying of one another as anyone else good lord let me quote somebody you don't like get that crazy email about how that person's a heretic you know what heretic means it doesn't mean you disagree on a secondary issue wait um no back i i lament over the perversity that's been normalized in our culture good lord you can't even hardly watch a commercial anymore i am deeply heartbroken at the crazy division everywhere i'm talking about the church god i'm talking about inside man well it says you you love jesus you're my people and we might have strong disagreements on some secondary matters man you love jesus christ like the real one not not some dude you conjured up in your head i'm talking you look this guy man you're my people and if you've got like a tambourine and you like to like swing that thing around a flag and you like to dance in your you know king david gear listen go get it i ain't gonna do that but man go get it bro you're my people we're gonna spend a lot of time together in the future get it maybe i'll be able to do that there and so those are like three deceit that plagues us perversity and division so here's what i want to do maybe you know more than that i just want to take a second and mirror this i want to pray and then i've got speed on that why don't you join me in praying father we come to you just what a mess our hearts are breaking at the anger and animosity that just rules the day all the deceit that plagues this culture for the sexual perversity that is everywhere and the deep divisions that even divide your bride our hearts break and where our hearts do not break will you as the puritans pray will you give us the gift of tears help us through your beautiful name i pray amen from here nehemiah continues and i said o lord god of heaven the great and awesome god who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that i now pray before you day and night for the people of israel your servants confessing the sins of your people israel which we have sinned against you even i and my father's house have sinned we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments the statutes and the rules that you commanded your servant moses lamenting always leads to confession and repentance now there's two layers here um i i'm not sure we like either one of them the first one is is that he he personally confesses we don't have anything in the book that would say that that nehemiah has done anything it's kind of like when daniel does the same thing remember when we have these movements of god we've got some dude praying like this this is the foundation that renewal is built on so you've got this personal um confession here now here's what guitar almost i mean i don't know really of anyone who's asking the question have i participated in this unrest have i been a part of the brokenness that i see around me no no just like good religious people we're really great at seeing where everybody else has messed up and don't do much introspection at all we let the book read other people we don't read nus now let's play have you over the last few years misplaced your hope if you have you've participated in the unrest have you with your online persona participated in the unrest have you memed your way into the unrest have you with your prayerlessness participated in the unrest has a lack of seriousness around real discipleship of really following after jesus helps you to participate in the unrest and i know look listen i know this stuff's hard listen i'd much rather be talking about life right now but this this is a moment where i i feel like brother sis we were built for this but we got to own the moment and if we won't own the moment we're conceding the moment to dark powers and that means we don't go look at how broken it is where we go look at how broken i am oh my gosh i am participating in this way i am sowing seeds of division i i am an angry person because lament doesn't exist and we don't know how to take that stuff to him then it oozes out of us onto our online platforms into our kind of picking a team rather than going i'm on the lord's side and and we'll need to repent of that personally own our stuff i don't want to be a subject matter expert in everyone else's sin i do want to be pretty dialed into my own it'll keep me in a place where the lord can bless me where i can get a sense of his presence more richly and i think walk in the power that he's promised me but the more i'm an expert in your sin and completely unaware of mine it puts me in a place that god says i know them from afar i don't want him to know me from afar i want him to draw near like he says he does to the humble and so let me pray for us pray with me father forgive us forgive me for where i've misplaced my hope it's not difficult to forget and then to begin to put my hope on this or on that or on this moment or on this election or on this law or on this protection or on this forgive me for that or i've been careless with my words whether it be online or with a family member with a friend or someone else will you forgive me i want to be a peacemaker you said blessed are the peacemakers let me be a peacemaker father where i've sought to fight in the human realm rather than the spiritual one forgive me i want to be a man of prayer deep and convictional prayer and god where i have lacked seriousness about full surrender to you where i have lacked seriousness of growing in you by your grace and mercy will you forgive me for your beautiful name i pray amen and then the other portion here is not just personal confession but it's corporate confession again i'm not talking about the culture i'm talking about us talking about the church anybody watched the church the last five years ago that was disappointing anybody just like ah i think we could do better than that yeah so so evangelicals have really made a mess of some of these things and so let me because again i think in every poll done it is clear we have no idea what's in the bible we have no idea what's in the bible now why is that such a big deal because if you have no idea what's in the bible then people can use the bible to trick you and make you look like a fool oh you don't what does satan do in genesis 3 except twist the word of god anybody read recently where jesus is driven into the wilderness and is tested you remember that jesus is quoting scripture to say you know what satan says before or after jesus quote scripture anybody know scripture so the devil loves to twist the word of god to half truth the word of god to shrink the word of god or expand it and so if we don't know it what ends up happening is is some guy will say something ridiculous some guy will say something ridiculous says no biblical merit we'll laugh it up ignorant as we are and that's a corporate confession that the evangelical church needs to make we have not known your word i think we look like the world around us there's been a neglect of holiness among the people of god i think we have a tendency to forget his faithfulness i mean right like he's not there's no part of him on wednesday it was like what just happened there's no panic in the godhead i think we've chosen pragmatism over power and i think that we have conceded the care of the poor and marginalized to the state the care of the poor and marginalized were given to the people of god who were poor and marginalized and he saved us ransomed us called him to himself it's not the state's job it's the church's job but we were like no you guys got that we got some stuff we want to do i'm just not sure what exactly that is now there are pockets where this isn't true but by and large this is the evangelical church really happy great music i mean great music unless like you're like well that's my mom's hymns and then i still think great music and we'll throw on him from time to time but this needs to be the repentance that the evangelical world needs to walk in is that we have sinned against god in these ways if you're like well i haven't memorized philippians great but you're still an evangelical which means you're part of this dysfunctional family and according to daniel and nehemiah almost everybody else that prays prayers like this we are a part of a people and therefore we repent as a part of that people so let me pray father forgive us your people we have tried to get by through intuition and old sunday school felt bored we have neglected your word we have not been serious about holiness it's so easy to forget your faithfulness to us we choose pragmatism over power we have chosen uh this and that versus an intimate relationship with you and god forgive us where we have conceded the care of the poor and the marginalized to the state help us we need you forgive us for your beautiful name i pray amen last thing look at verse 8 remember the word that you commanded your servant moses saying if you are faithful unfaithful i will scatter you among the peoples but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven from there i will gather them and bring them to the place that i have chosen to make my name dwell there they are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and your strong hand o lord let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man that was the prayer right before he goes in and he asks for permission to go back and help the brokenness of jerusalem now what's happening in this moment is one of those things i think is directly tied to our not our lack of knowledge around the word of god what nehemiah is doing here is simply praying the promises of god back to god that's all he's doing it's not like god forgot them there's just that's what i'm telling if you don't know how to pray just open up your bible and start praying it watch him grow you in prayer this is literally all nehemiah you have said o lord that if we didn't walk in your you would scatter us but if we returned to you you would even if we were scattered to the uttermost parts of heaven you would re-gather us you would group us and your presence would dwell uh among us nehemiah is reminding god of god's promise to his people and one of the ways we need to be praying in this season after lament not before after confession not before are these prayers of deep trust that god keeps his word and that god accomplishes his purpose and if we don't walk in it our children will or our great-grandchildren will someone gets to walk in this victory and and i pray we not punt to five generations from now the renewal movement that if we would just humble ourselves before god might be ours six of you are excited about that we'll just or we could just get some marshmallows and watch the whole thing burn my my preference is humbling ourselves before the mighty god but this is one of those weird things where you get to choose for you and your household but you don't let me pray these prayers of trust over us father even as we see the devolution and destruction going on in our nation the division the things that we have in certain ways been complicit with we ask spirit of the living god that you would move in power that you would keep your you say if we returned you so here we are as best we can in this moment by your grace returning to you humbling ourselves owning where we have participated and asking for a fresh out point of your spirit you have said you will gather you will dwell with and so we ask in the name of jesus will you fulfill your word in our day father i don't i don't want just my children to to get what is clearly available to the generation that will just stop lower themselves before you and trust you again and so father will you hear our cries we believe that ultimate victory is ours that our hope will one day be fulfilled in every way possible in fact beyond our comprehension will it be fulfilled and yet in this moment we simply lay before you you are our hope you are our trust help us it's for your beautiful name i pray amen i want to give you a homework assignment and this is how we get in the fight right so we're not just praying we're going to do something it's going to sound simple to you and i'm i want you to hear me say that this little step will do more to start a fight than than anything else i think you can do here's what i want you to do if there is someone in your life family co-worker neighbor and you guys just don't see eye to eye ideologically and and they're on the other team let's just pretend for a second you're not like i'm on the lord's team but you're on one of those other teams just pretend and there's this person and man you're just like gosh i dislike them strongly here's what i want you to maybe even already maybe you already did this at thanksgiving or christmas you had the talk you wished you could get out of it but it already started and i want you to pray for him this week pray blessings over him this week i'm not asking you to lie i'm not i'm just asking you pray for that person ask god to bless them to remind their heart of his goodness and grace don't don't don't drive by ideologically bomb them in prayer just ask that god would bless them ask that the spirit of god would awaken that person to the beauty of the gospel of jesus christ and the goodness of god almighty and then i want you to text them or email them or call them and just go hey i just want you to know i prayed for you this morning i asked god to bless you this morning and i especially pray that you would be aware of the presence and goodness of jesus in a unique and profound way and then sign your name now this accomplishes a couple of things if you think back to what i said last week one you're fighting for harmony now in a way that's in line with blessed are the peacemakers you're serious about following the example of jesus and you're bringing peace to an otherwise contentious situation i i have in 20 years i have never had anyone respond to me hey i'm praying for you and hear specifically what i'm praying for you with vitro towards me and i feel like if they did then i still feel like man i did what was right and good before the lord and i did everything i could to live at peace with all men as the as the scriptures tell me and i just think if you'll do this i mean think if this room plus everyone that's going to watch this sermon now you know 10 12 20 000 people if 20 000 people just said this person who knows i'm on a different side of this thing with them gets an email from me gets a text from me after i actually prayed prayers of blessing knowledge of jesus to be growing think of just the amount of tension that that starts to diffuse just a little and good lord what happens if they turned around and did something like that now how might this might sound weird like how might that just change even the atmosphere a bit listen i love you i'm in this with you uh what a day to be a follower of jesus christ i keep saying this and i gotta pray you and i were made for a moment like this not the 80s this moment confusion doubt fear anger rage loss of hope except for these people in the world's going on with these people but you have to know friends that the air you are breathing is trying to pull you in another direction which is why last week i said you have to fight for harmony it's not going to happen naturally you're not naturally going to give anyone the benefit of the doubt anymore gosh you have been discipled to not do that at every turn and men unless you're fighting unless you're aware and fighting i don't know that we have much of a chance but by the grace of god i know the spirit in you will remind you of what pleases the lord and will empower you to do it so that's homework but let me pray for us father we thank you for your grace we pray prayers of blessing over our nation father help us forgive us encourage us build into us pour yourself out upon us we humble ourselves before you we seek your face i pray even now if there's anger in the hearts or there's a you know a thousand yeah butts in the minds of people would you would you just cause peace to settle in over that soul over that mind just pray to be able to take their anger to you take their disappoint take their fear gosh i've got kids i'm concerned about what i see on the horizon father i thank you for this man in joshua 5. i thank you for the commander of your army i thank you that you don't lose fights and i can't see everything that you see and know we can't see everything that you see and know but we want to be on your side not on this side of that we want to be on your side so help us model this mirror that shape us to look more like jesus and it's for your beautiful name i pray amen just stand with me as we sing [Music] now jesus [Music] there is [Music] the goodness [Music] of jesus [Music] take the living water never thirst again the goodness of jesus [Music] of jesus [Music] he is all he said [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] in the goodness [Music] is [Music] be overwhelmed [Music] giving vision to see things [Music] you know just [Music] uh [Music] to see things [Music] you know what to do and i will go [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh [Music] sing with yourself [Music] amen praise god why don't you have a seat uh we're gonna end our service today the way that we always try uh to end it uh which is in a celebration of the lord's table all that we just discussed is only possible uh because of the life death and resurrection of jesus christ and so we're going to orient our hearts around that i don't know about you but even preparing for this i could see my own failures uh places i needed to confess my own sin where i've been complicit uh both as a leader of a church as well as in my own personal attitudes and actions and so i've it's been like a difficult week for me but also a beautiful week because we're sin abounds grace abounds all the more right and so if our heart will ever be oriented uh around anything it needs to be in the person and work of jesus christ i cannot out-sin the grace of god and so in this moment yet again come back to remember and to embrace the fact that i'm a week closer to all things being made new and in the space between we remember that on the night that jesus was arrested that he took bread and he broke it he said this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me at the end of the meal i still hear you tearing so i'll give you a second at the end of the meal he took the cup and he blessed it and this i just want to keep reminding you of this he's doing two things in this moment he's saying you're going to need to remember this one what i'm about to do but he also gives this promise that that there's this day coming where we drink with him again when all things have been made new and the former things have been forgotten and i don't know about you that sounds like a awesome coffee date right now right and so with this in view he says to take the cup and drink so we remember well hey bless you in the name of jesus i love you if you're a member don't forget we have a member meeting this afternoon uh we've got encounter tonight uh and so excited just to spend a bit more time with you today man if you need to pray with somebody i know these are disorienting times you need to pray with somebody we'll have men and women up here they'll be men and women in connection central man if you're if you're discombobulated will you let somebody pray for you just pray the peace of christ into you and then have a blast today be careful i love you we're going to dismiss by sections uh we'll i think sing a little bit will right before we do that all right love you [Music] so [Music] we can [Music] jesus [Music] he will embrace me own [Music] god [Music] every grace [Music] oh [Music] heavy laden [Music] until you're there come on he will embrace me it is [Music] jesus he will embrace me it is [Music] oh yes there are [Music] [Music] come [Music] [Music] i will rise and go [Music] and in the arms of my dear [Music] ten 000. [Music] you

Channel: The Village Church Resources

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Rating: 4.9183674 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church

Id: 2PkQJVrCLEE

Length: 77min 20sec (4640 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021