Sunday Service - 9/19/2021 - Matt Chandler

[Music] [Music] oh the valley and the wilderness [Music] [Music] those seasons [Music] you are with me [Music] the brim is [Music] you are with me [Music] you are with me [Music] always is [Music] always yes [Music] [Music] even if always just holding on you are with me every step of every day [Music] and your love will never change [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] well hey good morning how are we doing oh good you're doing great hey my name is mason king i serve as one of the elders here as well as the executive director at the village church institute comma care comma and groups so uh hey what'd you say it's a title there's there hey how about a choir yes come on come on all right hey we are so glad that you have joined us here or at home and if you are here you know what i'm going to ask you to do i'm going to ask you and scoot in the middle and you're thinking that's not me i've got room if there's seats between you and the next person it's you we need you to go ahead and scoot on over because the ushers can be coming by bringing some friends in to sit next to you so thank you very much all right couple things so actually i've got three announcements real quick the first thing is if you are joining us and you are new and you would like to get involved or plugged in or know what it means to get part of a home group or to become a member what you can do is you would text the word belong to 56549 that text the word belong to 56549 that is for the people who are here locally and also if you're here in the room and you wanna get connected what you could do is you could take out one of those connection cards in front of you and you could write down your name uh any questions you have any just how how you'd like to get plugged in and you could take that card and put in these black joy boxes against the wall on your way out but here's the last option it's my favorite option it's not a text message not write anything down just have an old-fashioned conversation with somebody what you can do is you go out to connection central to the left out here men and women in blue shirts which you can see them kind of standing around walking around these are members of our church who would love to learn your name i'd love to welcome you to our church and to help figure out how they can help you get connected to the body of christ here in flower mound all right so that's the welcome now i've got two announcements for you the first one is that we're having a forum this thursday night from 7 to 8 30 in here and there will be an online option and there is child care available from birth through fifth grade now let me tell you about the forum keeping kids safe that's what it's called it is one of the primary objectives of every parent and caregiver of children to keep them safe but in ever-changing times it can be kind of hard to know how to do that like i want to keep my kids safe but what am i keeping them safe from now brandon poor who is a member here but also is a member of the fbi child exploitation task force that's a title uh he's here to help us talk through about abuse and online exploit online exploitation of children how to keep your kids safe from these things now i've sat through this training i have an eight six and four-year-old i've also known brandon for 20 years and sitting in this training i found that he is able to give with his expertise he's able to give categories and definitions and helps to parents and caregivers of children to keep them safe when engaging with the world of technology and those around them so the forum is primarily for parents of kids who are in fourth through twelfth grade but obviously i went i went to the training when they had it for staff and i think it's beneficial for anybody so i recommend either you stream it thursday night or you show up here for the forum all right child care is available remember but you need to register online the link and all that information is online on the website now the next and the final announcement that i have is that october is our month of prayer and we want to encourage you guys to love your neighbors by praying for them simple as that so what you can do in your home group or with your friends throughout the month of october is you can take the time you meet together as a home group get outside it's still going to be 100 degrees and you could walk the streets of your neighborhood and just begin to pray over the homes so if you know the people in the house a you pray for them with all the context you know and you you ask the lord to bring repentance to bring renewal and to bring radical devotion to jesus christ and then you go to house b and if you don't know them you pray the same thing and then maybe try and find a way to get to know him it's that simple so that's what we're asking during the month of october there'd be our kind of month of prayer that we might love our neighbors by actively setting aside time to pray for them to both know and love and trust jesus and to grow in obedience to him all right that's my announcements guys um it's so good to see you this morning i'm so glad you're here if you would please stand both here and at home to join us for worship through song [Music] hey good morning family we lift our voices together hear one another declare these things that are true when all i see when all i see is [Music] tree and all i see is a mountain when all i see is [Music] nothing to fear [Music] surrender we worship we trust [Music] i sing through the oh [Music] for jesus [Music] [Applause] you see [Music] is [Music] [Music] way [Music] and almighty forces [Music] you win everybody god [Music] the feet can stand against the power of god [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] is [Music] here [Music] [Music] he's powerful he's strong he's trustworthy church family we turn our eyes to the lord jesus psalm 34 says those who behold the lord are radiant because we behold the source of truth and beauty he is our hope now and forevermore so we sing about him [Music] do you feel the world [Music] do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through do you wish that you could see it all made me [Music] coming it is ourselves [Music] is [Music] is he worthy of all blessing and honor and glory is [Music] he loves [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is he worthy [Music] as high as those redeemed [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yeah in unison as his church we sing [Music] yeah praise his name [Applause] [Music] one with [Music] god most [Music] you are what a beautiful name what a beautiful name of jesus christ what a beautiful name it is [Music] jesus you [Music] [Music] what a wonderful day [Music] what a wonderful day [Music] what a wonderful day [Music] what a wonderful day [Music] what a wonderful name what a powerful name [Music] a foreign [Music] yours is [Music] the name of jesus christ [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Applause] holy [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what a beautiful name it [Music] a beautiful is it is [Music] is [Music] father in heaven we commit this time to you we as those who have been purchased by the blood of the lord jesus christ proclaim you the son and the spirit together as the one true god we have no other god but you will you send your spirit to this room as we hear the word proclaimed [Music] that minds would open hearts would open the dead would come alive by the power of the holy spirit form us shape us by the gospel proclaimed [Music] that we can make disciples in the one name of the father son and spirit and we come to you in the name of your son jesus amen good morning church my name is jaden powell i'm a senior at dengar high school and i'll be reading and i'll be reading scripture from john 12 20-26 now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some greeks so these came to philip who was from mercedes in galilee and asked him sir we wish to see jesus philip went and told andrew andrew and philip went and told jesus and jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly i say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me he must follow me and where i am there will my servants be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him this is the word of the lord thanks be to god well good morning it's good to see you if you have your bibles i would love for you to turn to this passage there's kind of a three-fold movement uh in this text i want to walk you through that in our time together today um but before we dive in uh i was in colorado last weekend for the commissioning service of jt english who was on staff with us for a little over five years set up like a really beautiful kind of holistic discipleship uh things here uh and and then he he's there now as the lead guy and so i was preaching there at his uh commissioning service and looking out at his crowd and seeing how many people actually took advantage of the move to colorado and just went up there with him and then when i got home sunday night it was actually nicer in texas than it was in colorado last week and we sat out on our back patio lauren and i did and we were we were blown away at what i only know how to describe as a period of visible fruitfulness in the life of this church that's really unlike anything that we've experienced to this point and here's uh what i mean by that i'm not saying that we're growing faster than we ever have i don't know that we'll ever go back to a thousand a year and i i know we're not going back to six services on a weekend i can tell you that right now uh and uh you know like we had that season where it was just like turning away from all six services growing by a thousand people a year and everybody's like this is amazing and and by the world's metric it was and i'm not saying that really beautiful things didn't happen in that season a lot of you actually came to faith in that season you joined this church in that season but as we sat on the back patio lorna and i just talking about uh how our lives are going how god's ringing us out the things that we're giving our lives to we were we were talking about the fact that uh while we were in colorado commissioning jt uh at storyline church citizens church over in plano was celebrating two years of autonomy and we were planting a church in brighton michigan so that uh when i got home on uh sunday night and i got the update of what god did here and what god did among us and if you weren't in the room for max testimony in the nine just an epic ransoming from darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son and then we started to just kind of talk about the fact that right now while we're gathered in this room some of you are watching uh from home all over the metroplex indeed all over the world there are men and women that are gathering in churches that you with your generosity has helped plant like right now like if you want to go up to frisco there was a church that you guys helped plant there and there was a group of you that used to sit in here and you lived in frisco and you were driving and you're like no no we want to be a part of a gospel preaching church in our neighborhoods and so that's there right now it's in frisco it's in keller it's in fort worth it's in louisville it's down in dallas both east dallas it's in richardson you have given of yourselves and you've given up your resources for us to be a church that delights in participating in the kingdom of god more than it's interested in its own brand and lorna on our back like that's what i want to give my life to that that's what i want to be run out for like at the end of my 40-year run or 50 whatever god does to look out and go there are a thousand plus biblically serious spiritually alive zealously evangelistic churches out there that we collectively spent our run together planting and building up for the glory of jesus not for any brand they're not all village churches you're not seeing that right they've got their own names their own stats their own styles we just want to go they love the word of god they are happy about that and they want to see people follow jesus and then to train towards that and build towards that and give to that is how i want to spend my life in it and it hit me last sunday night on our back patio that we're doing just that so that man back in the old days and maybe you thought those days were better where we were turning away from every service there were thousands upon thousands every year coming through but we weren't quite sure what was going on it's a very different feel than going there are 30 churches gathering this sunday morning because of the sacrifice of this community of faith and i want you to be aware of that that you have done that you have built that you have by being a part of this congregation given yourself over to that and i feel like 18 years in we're just hitting our stride we're just hitting our stride that i really do believe in the next 15 20 years to the ends of the earth you will plant churches that plant churches among unreached people groups on every continent and we're going to continue to give ourselves over to that we're going to continue to put that before you and continue to celebrate that and rejoice in that that because when my time to do what's next for me i don't know what that is i'm glad i don't have to be thinking okay who steps in to a 25 30 000 member church with 20 satellites and like i don't have to do that it's like who can step in to this family of faith that's serious about the kingdom of god and continue on the good work that christ has been doing all these years and so at the end of the service each week when i say hey man i love you you make it easy to pastor those things this is what i'm talking about like you've bought in with me like you've sakura again i was stunned at how many people uh were in jt's church not to visit but they didn't move there to participate in a new work i'll go out to l.a in october and see travis cunningham and mike johnny and there's a lot of people that moved that way right forget about the flood this way like we sent some folk out that chose the wilderness i mean we're giggling but they chose to raise their family in a much more hostile environment that this is a much more hostile environment than this is and they went out because they loved the kingdom of god more than they loved their own lives and and i'm eager for more of that here um so here's what i want to do next week we start our fall series it's going to be eight weeks on um identity purpose and mission i'm really geeked out about this series um so excited to start that next week so what i've been trying to do as we move towards it is we did two weeks it was just a gospel primer right here's the depth of the gospel here's the breadth of the gospel now this week i just want to talk to you about the paradoxical nature of the kingdom of god that's what i want to do and then we'll tie a bow on gospel of the kingdom and then we'll get into identity purpose and mission although i will leak quite a bit of identity purpose and mission even today because it's all i've been marinating in for the last few months okay deal that's where we're headed so um the the thing about the kingdom of god which by the way is what jesus came preaching right so jesus comes preaching what the gospel of the kingdom the kingdom of god just put really simply and concisely is the reign and rule of god over his creation that's the kingdom the kingdom of god is the reign and rule of god over his creation and so when jesus shows up on the scene he comes announcing that the reign and rule of god is here in a way that wasn't as visible before christ came into the world so jesus comes preaching the kingdom but the kingdom is confusing to us the kingdom a lot of times doesn't make sense to us i'm using the phrase correctly it is a paradox because the creator is saying the reigning rule of god is the creator saying like this and as we covered two weeks ago our compulsion is not to go oh like that but to determine for ourselves how things should go so whereas the rain and rule of god the kingdom of god is the creator saying it works like this the opposite of that and and you and i bent and broken in this direction reject that and say i mean okay but for me it's like this and so when you read the scriptures it's kind of a violent act it's a it's a like a collision of our kingdom versus the real kingdom and i'll give you some examples when jesus is laying out to his followers how the kingdom would work he said blessed are the poor for they'll be rich now i'm guessing as you you know did your little goal sheet for 2021 you weren't thinking probably figure out a way to be more broke right or or blessed are you when you mourn i'm guessing you don't have a stated goal i want to mourn better this year right this is the paradox it's an upside down kingdom and it confronts our inclinations and what feels right to us let's make eye contact it confronts what feels right to us i i told you reason's gone like nobody does reason anymore it's all about oh what is that what do i feel like and the kingdom of god is going to confront that feeling and it's going to bring that feeling either into order or you'll reject that order and give yourself over to destruction and you might think i'm overselling that but let's let's talk about it so i want to show you the paradox of the kingdom of god let's look at this together we're going to look at the first three verses here starting in verse 20. now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some greeks so these came to philip who was from bethesda in galilee and asked him sir we wish to see jesus and philip went and told andrew and andrew and philip went and told jesus and jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified there is a ton going on in this text i'm going to try to move quickly um some greeks some non-jews those who would have been considered by the jews as unclean not welcomed in the synagogue certainly not a part of god's big plan to establish his kingdom and set up his rule and reign globally come seeking jesus and that's why the inefficiency here right so they come to andrew hey we'd really like to see jesus andrew's like oh gosh these are greeks what am i supposed to do here i don't want one of those peter rebukes so he he loops in a guy which is if you've got kids kids do this all the time right they break something or they know they're in trouble like bring their brother or sister with him like hey plant broke you know this one this one somebody there if it goes bad right and so this is what's going on like andrew's like philip the greeks come with me and so they leave the greeks right and they just go to jesus and they're laying out hey the gentiles have come right the the greeks are here and the greeks want to see you and jesus's response to the greeks coming to see him is this sentence and jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified now you and i have the privilege of being people post-resurrection so when we look at this we're seeing something and getting something that in this moment no one who heard this would have gotten like they think this is about military triumph like how do you think about glory here's how we think about glory glory is power glory is money glory is fame glory is statute right it's like we think about glory we think about triumph right to glory in something or to have glory is you're victorious you are wealthy the treasure is yours that you have won you have power you have but jesus is not referencing that kind of conquest he's referencing his death on the cross they would buy back across the globe greeks jews and all that's what he has in view so that his overcoming the world his glorification isn't by military might it's not by the picking up of swords it's not about him conquering some current emperor or breaking some current set of laws but christ reveals the true nature of glory by emptying himself of the kind of authority that could have done all of that rightly and instead went and died on the cross if you remember the story of jesus's arrest the night of his crucifixion um the the the high priest guards that come and they grab him peter ain't having that like peter is a lot like you and i and so he pulls out this sword and cuts off the ear of the uh one of the guards the high priest and then jesus picks it up and puts it back on him and then he says hey put away your sword man like he who lives by the sword dies by the word this is and then jesus says plus don't you know that at any moment i could have at my disposal 12 legions of angels this is jesus going hey nobody's arresting me here i'm going nobody's taking my life i'm giving it know what like like i'm doing this they're not doing this like in a moment i could just liquidate the whole roman empire i'm doing something they're not taking i'm giving right and i love this quote by frederick dale bruner what looks like the perfect proof against jesus's authenticity his capital punishment proves by longer exposure to it to be the supreme argument for and the major display of god's profound love for the world now let me say this to you you and i we so swim in the waters of a world built by this sacrifice built by this glory that we don't even recognize it in fact i would argue that even the enemies of christianity today use concepts given to them by christianity in order to try to attack us like if you've got any kind of background in historical studies the concepts of human rights liberty freedom that were those were born on this cross they they weren't born by the romans the spartans the greeks the medes they didn't come up with human rights liberty philanthropy freedom those were born of christ on the cross that was born of the church like even concepts like feminism and and misogyny those are actual concepts rooted in an understanding of god's word and what christ accomplishes on the cross those don't exist before jesus punches satan in the mouth you can't argue the way we argue right now around equality and unity those are biblical concepts those don't exist in the world before the christian church grows and begins to push back what's dark in the world so that even those who would hate the church because of equality or um freedom or liberty or you name it are actually using concepts that they wouldn't possess if it wasn't for the church it's wild to me and what it is is satanic judo y'all know what judo is y'all know how judo works come at me no i'm just kidding don't come back so the way judo works as a fighting style is you use the momentum and force of your opponent against them right you use the momentum and force of your opponent against them so often times if you have somebody comes out you want them to come at you right and you'll take their energy and displace it you will use their energy against them well a lot of the wickedness that you're seeing in the world is demonic judah what's happened is that as the word of god has been as christ has been glorified globally specifically in western civilization right because that's what built western civilization right as this has occurred you see things being righted you you see the death of the patriarchy and here's here's something fascinating to note um tom holland not spider-man but the historian said that patriarchy was actually killed by the church in the 1300s when the church made marriage a sacrament and made it illegal for a man to sell his daughter for goods hmm right so like that's where that came from so so then in the middle of all this as the word of god as the spirit of god is the people of god start to move humans bent towards wickedness and sin towards what's more righteous closer towards god's heart for all peoples satan then takes that momentum and uses it and tries to flip it over into madness and and so i love this quote i know i'm saying i love this quote a lot but this is john stott he says one of the things about the devil is that he's a fanatic and the enemy of all common sense moderation and balance i don't know if you're watching the same stuff i'm watching but it seems like those three are out the window moderation balance common sense seems like we just a lot a lot of that going on so what's happened where where the spirit of god the word of god the people of god are starting to rightly order culture society things like that so what happens well well you use that momentum and you take it and you flip it to a place that's just wicked on the other side right because you can be wrong on both ends of the spectrum right like everybody's trying to turn you into a fanatic on one end to the other don't do it don't do it right so the desperate need that you and i both have is for the word of god to continually remind us that glory isn't in grabbing power and being aggressive and making yourself big and conquering with physical force but rather that real glory is found in meekness strength under control humility kindness prayerfulness a ferocity that matches the ferocity of christ you tracking with me it's the paradox of the kingdom glory isn't found in might glory is found in humility and meekness that kind of flies in the face of what we're taught isn't it certainly flies in the face of our current definitions of glory now that's not the only this is the one if you hear like i don't like that it gets worse so look at verse 24 truly truly i say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life that greek word life is the word psyche do you hear what's there you could actually even translate that self if you want to now if you want to talk about a full-on assault for the modern world view you say hate yourself don't you dare don't you hate yourself you are wonderful so here's the here's what the world's trying to get you to do and in the end it's going to get you killed all the weight right now man you need to look inside yourself you know look inside yourself at your deepest desires and then once you find those deepest desires you look around and you you find people who also have those deepest desires and then you go get it right i mean i'm just i mean i just want to ask the basic question how's that working for us how's that working for us see the the teaching of the kingdom and the reality of the christian faith is that the more we we kind of turn inward rather than upward the more things get broken and don't work in fact i would say over and over and over again there is a good kind of self-hate now i'm not talking i know we're in like a self-care moment but but i'm all for like good biblical self-care man take a sabbath seek some solitude in silence grab yourself actual nutritious food and not flaming hot cheetos all the time right take a nap get some counseling yes to self-care but i need you to hear me say and remind you that the essence of sin is self-centeredness the essence of sin if you're like i don't know i mean morally i'ma forget let's throw morality out of the window for a second the essence of sin is for you to believe when it comes to neighbors and god that you're your own god in fact here's the great paradox we're seeing in this passage here look at me because this is i'm telling you i'm just slapping every principality in power that's operating in 2021 that's after your soul that's seeking to kill steal and destroy from you what christ has brought to you the more you make your life about you the more miserable of a human being you're going to be the more your god and everyone else is meant to worship at your altar you're going to be angry anxious lonely and life's going to be hard for you and yet the whole thrust of our society is that you should be for you right who else is going to be for you if you're not for you but here i want to love you i promise you i'm not trying to start a fight today but here's what you're sovereign over what you reign and rule over you ready not a secret jack squad like you're sovereign over nothing you reign and rule over nothing you lack the power you like the ability give me you got a knee replacement you're some kind of god hurt yourself sleeping like what a crummy god you are but this is hey you're giggling i'm not trying to make jokes like some of you bringing into your marriage that your spouse exists to make you happy where'd you get that where'd you get that that that work is you know everybody at work better understand what you bring to the table no wonder you're always so angry right i'm telling you emotions have been given to you by god to help you you've been raging lately so much of that rage is tied by some insidious belief that you're the point of it all how much stuff are you taking personally that ain't personal at all you ever freak out somebody driving around you and you you just know you know they saw you you did that on purpose whole flipping state knows you don't drive that slow in the left lane they know right like look what is that like i need the world to behave for me the way it's meant to behave for me now you know why you're always angry because you ain't sovereign over nothing you can't reign and rule over anything gosh you can't even reign and rule over yourself like seriously who's lied to you as much as you have anybody made a promise to you and broke it more than you have has anyone been more abusive to you than you have you're your god like this isn't the way to life the way to life is to go i'm a crummy god forget that i'm dying to that to die to self the cardinal sin of our secular age is the only way to actually ever live and you're wracked with anxiety all the time i wonder how much of that anxiety is directly tied to the fact that you're desperately trying to control your environment and no you can't and you don't know what's coming tomorrow and that freaks you out and and your control over people isn't working well so you're just wracked with anxiety how much of that is tied to your belief that you're like supposed to be ruling something here's what's great and here's the christian position i get to die all of that to all that because i know that i'm not the point but i know who the point is and and i get to die to some of that anxiety because i know the one who is sovereign over every molecule in the universe and he's moved towards me with grace and compassion he hasn't come towards me to condemn me so in that space i i get freed up from some of my rage not all of it because not all of my historic rage has been tied to me thinking i'm god so it goes back to words and wounds but we'll get into that in the weeks to come like i get freed up from anxiety because i know the one who knows and the one who knows knows me and and the one who knows me has said i'm for you not against you that there's no condemnation for you that right and so i believe those promises grab hold of that and then live life in a scary fallen broken world where bad things happen to great people and bad things happen to terrible people and the world's broken and and to be able to go but but i know that my redeemer lives right is that what job said is the whole world burned but i know that my redeemer lives and he's able then you get to just let go of that every time it flares up so the another little secret to dying to self is it's not like this one time deal one time in fact probably it's not even a daily thing i don't think maybe you're wired differently i've got about 40 compulsions a day i've got to put to death right that's just me maybe you're godlier than i am let me know over here you can preach next weekend so here's how here's how um the apostle john talks about it do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the father but is from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires but whoever does the will of god abides forever so a couple of things and then i've got one more point so you've got the paradox of glory which is humility and meekness not not power grabbing and then you've got um the the paradox of life which is to get to life you have to die to yourself um and then we've got one more paradox but i want to highlight this if you're not a christian here like i never want to sell you a bill of goods the the call on your life by the creator god of the universe isn't follow me and all your dreams will come true the invitation is not hey if you stop this and you start this good things will happen the call is that the one who knows and the one who is is willing to reign and rule over your life in a way that when you try to do it you grow exhausted weary anxious angry and lonely and so we've been singing about it and i'm talking about it now the death of jesus christ on the cross is about purchasing you as a son or daughter transferring you out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son and so if you've come in there you've been hanging out with us for a couple of weeks i know you've heard the gospel on repeat the last few weeks and you're just like i'm so tired of life as it is here's the good news you you don't have to leave here today with any of that weight you can leave here with the freedom that comes when you're like i'm i refuse to be my own god any longer i i lay that i ask you to reign and rule over my life jesus forgive me for my self-centeredness and help me to surrender to you and follow you and you can leave this room lighter than you came in but i also want to remind you christian that the ongoing work of sanctification requires you over and over again to be confronted by the word and to submit to it to be confronted by the word and submit to it it's god beckoning you into greater life like we've talked about this for almost 20 years now like all the thou shalt and thou shalt not in the bible are actually about life and joy it's not about god trying to take anything from he's trying to get you there but again this this is paradoxical it doesn't make sense to us we're like man if i let anybody know that if i let anybody into that or if i don't project this image oh my gosh what are people going to think about me right the fear is oh no i'll die on the inside when the imitation is actually if you'll die you can get rid of all that and you can actually live i can be marked by joy rather than fear fear being found out fear of whatever you know your your spouse feeling this way or your kids looking at you this way or your co-workers or neighbors feeling this kind of way about you now look what you're doing there you're defining your reality looking around at other people rather than looking to the one place that can i'm getting ahead of myself in the next week's sermon so um it's hard right i'm right on this line so i'm trying to bid you today christian just to die a little bit just die a little bit more right and this is the ongoing work of progressive sanctification the number of times the spirit of god confronts me and in through the scriptures or even just by provoking in my heart like it feels like it's happening multiple times every day and each one is an invitation to greater intimacy greater joy and actual life it's an assault on my false belief that my feelings and desires are actually superior to the creators if we could learn to see that way and be more quick to say yes and die to self the sooner we'll live a life that jesus calls to the full and that's the invitation that's on the table for you now here's the third paradox the third paradox is one of place so the first paradox is a paradox of glory kingdom of god the glory works a little bit of a different way uh the second paradox is the paradox of life if you want life to the full like you want that thing that you see on the commercials you're not going to get it by buying something at ikea you're going to get something else from that like the frustration of instructions that don't aren't helpful you want real life you die to yourself and then the last is the paradox of place the paradox of place look at verse 26 if anyone serves me he must follow me and where i am there will my servant be also i'm going to get to that last phrase here in a second um here would be a question that i would ask and then i'll tell you kind of how we're built here if you're a guest and you can be like okay you're built here like this i'm gonna move on and and that's great there's a lot of great churches i love you god bless you go get it just join somewhere here's my question like do you want to be where the action is like you just want to be right in the middle of what's actually going on like on the field man like that what i what i want to pastor and lead and what i want the village church to be and what i what i tried to celebrate early on i think we're all the more becoming is a group of men and women that are not happy being spectators belong to be right in the middle of the action you see the invitation here and the paradox of what's going on he says you want to be with me you want to be right in the middle of the action you'll be right in the middle of the point of history follow me and serve me follow me and serve me that's the command here so there's a difference between here look at me we're almost there i promise you're almost there get you home in time to eat something and watch the boys the number of evangelical christians that are happy to stay in the stands that believe that the kingdom's been given to a guy like me who vocationally works for a church rather than giving to you who lives in a specific neighborhood and works in a certain domain of society is widespread but we don't find anything like that in the bible and so the paradox of place is the paradox of if you want to be right in the middle of the action you want to be right you want to be on the field you want to be living your best life you want to be walking in glory you want to be it requires a seriousness about following jesus that transcends sunday morning attendance the the reason i wanted to preach the first message in that that gospel series is because i need you to know that just because you're a political conservative doesn't make you a christian i'm grateful for your political conservatism it just doesn't make you a christian i appreciate in some sense your attendance here and yet your attendance here does not make you a christian any more uh than me running out on the football field makes me a player right so he says the paradox of place is you want to be right in the middle of the soup you want to be in the action you want the great themes follow me and serve me and then i love this part i wish i had more time well let me read this quote because it's one of my favorites if you haven't read a hiding place by corey ten boom you should get that don't let that be the book your kids read that you don't read it's exceptional stir your affections for jesus it'll it'll remind you of his goodness and grace well betsy is telling her sisters true story uh the these two sweet women heading into the concentration camps in world war ii and betsy says this to her sister corey there are no ifs in god's world and no places that are safer than other places the center of his will is our safety let us pray that we may always know it you want to be in the center of his will follow and serve him and then i love this laugh this last the last sentence in 26 is what i wish we had a little bit more time for but we don't so i'll just give you a brief summary and and we'll get to the conclusion if anyone serves me the father will honor him there is a future orientation that marks and drives the christian life this passage isn't saying if you follow and serve jesus god's gonna increase your bank account or he's gonna give you six-pack abs or your kids are going to be perfect or your your your marriage will be filled with wild romantic love right like none of that's in view here that this is when all things are said and done before the throne of god the creator of the universe will honor you this is eternal rewards which is what the bible talks about over and over and over again the scriptures say hey it matters how like some of you guys we're going to get into heaven you smell a little smoky right it can be refined and smell like smoke and you'll have a little little dainty little shack up there and you'll be like i made it and then the scripture seemed to say there are others that have this lavish rewards for how they followed and served after god it's not salvation it's the father will honor them you and i live in the really scary already but not yet you're tracking with me like like we're in the space between like like the victory of christ is sure our future is secure and we are meant to live our lives for another day while being faithfully present in the here and now dying to self walking in a meek humility that ends up being profoundly powerful while walking alongside one another serving one another so here's my encouragement as i end in the room today all of us like all i'm speaking to myself my beautiful bride's right here i'm i'm looking at those of you just been following jesus for a long time what god demands from us is everything the commands of scripture woo us deeper into the life of god over and over and over again so i'd ask you to just try to identify where's that no for you right now where are you maybe hiding right now maybe where are you projecting something that's not really true about you where have you actually believed the opposite is true that you need to puff out your chest and be strong and big rather than being what you actually are weak and afraid where have you kept your struggles and fears and doubts a secret where have you um tried to bury your anxiety under another glass of wine or binging another right where have you we're like these are the spaces where the spirit of god wants to work these are the spaces that god's calling you into deeper intimacy and life this is where the spirit of god wants to confront and remind you if you will die yet again or many if you're not a christian for the first time you you don't have to rule and reign anymore you don't have to be the pathetic god of your life i will lead you i will guide you i will protect you i will carry you safely home and unlike you i have the power to do it i want to encourage all of us to live in wisdom right take care of yourself move eat good food rest but outcomes are out of your hands and the more you refuse to believe that and try to clamp down and control the more of a giant mess you're gonna make like someone who's controlling in a marriage isn't bringing to that marriage the life and love and energy that god intended for the union parents who like like hovering over their kids that's not what god has for our babies those of you who think man if i just manage my money well i'll be safe i don't know where you're getting that if the last couple of years have shown us anything is that nobody controls the market no but let me say this nobody in this room controls the market right like you tell me i mean i know most of like i'm telling you which one he was like i just decided to agree you were just a passive recipient so what would it be like to just go you know what i'm not doing this anymore i'm not doing this anymore if you're not a believer i'm not going to be my own god anymore i'm going to ask i'm going to repent of self-centeredness i'm going to ask jesus to be my god and if you're a christian maybe the thing this morning is man spirit's been all over you for a while now about this thing this thing and and you have just refused to die to it and you've got all listen i know that i've been in this game a long time even right now you're like oh he if he even knew man if i did this this this this would happen the carnage that would happen if i did that i just want to encourage you that maybe that would happen but you'd be alive you wouldn't be all spiritually constipated and broken and dead inside again it's a weird paradox it's hard for us and and that demonic judo gets us every time so what would it be like for you just die a little bit more today just to smidge more or maybe something if you're not christian just like full-on die just go do it let's do the big one and we'll work on those little deaths so littler deaths are easier over time than that first big one so maybe for some of you today that's the one that needs to happen if we are going to live out the depth and the breadth of the gospel we're going to have to understand the paradox of the kingdom of god what glory actually looks like what life actually looks like and what it looks like to be right in the middle of what god is up to let's pray father i thank you for my brothers and sisters in this place for your mercy on their lives for the grace that you've shown them you ransomed them called them to yourself you have transferred them out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of your beloved son we bless you and thank you and praise you for that i pray for maybe men and women in this room who maybe have been around for the last couple of weeks maybe they've been around for the last couple of months maybe they've been around last couple of years and have yet to just take that step of dying to themselves that they have even as they try to clean up their lives and they try to stop doing so much of this and start trying to get a a control on this compulsion or this aspect of their life that they sense as dysfunctional i just pray they'd be weary enough today to finally just stop to lay it down to ask for your reign and rule over their lives i pray that salvation might be granted to them strengthen the souls of your sons and daughters strengthen the souls of your children and then i ask king of glory would you save those among us today who have even in this moment just a death grip on control despite their fears despite their anger despite their anxiety i just pray that you would break the stranglehold of that on their spirits and they might walk in the freedom that's been given to the children of god so i'm going to pray for us we're going to stand and sing but if that if that's you in this room in particular this morning if you're one of those you're like i've just never really said yes to jesus i've been trying to clean myself up i've been trying to be the god of my own life i'm just determining what's best for me based on my feelings and what i want when i want it and it's it's really led to a train wreck and this morning's that morning you want to just go i'm not going to do that anymore i want to die to that i want to repent of self-centeredness i want to ask jesus to be my king i just encourage you to do that while we sing and then we've got men and women in the back of the room that would love to pray for you if you want to be baptized today we've got shorts and towels and we can just rejoice in your new life today together you're you're transferred into the kingdom so let me pray for us we're going to stand we're going to sing together about the king of kings and lord of lords father bless these men and women help us through your beautiful name amen would you stand with me as we sing [Music] in the [Music] there was mercy in your eyes to [Music] in [Music] praise the sun praise [Music] praise forever [Music] [Music] [Music] knowing this was our salvation jesus [Music] the spirits god of the lord [Music] in the morning [Music] their [Music] christ was born oh [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Applause] raise us [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] we turn our eyes towards baptism [Music] hello church family i am uh so happy to be here um and i'm gonna make it i'm gonna make it through this whole thing this is i'm joshua crockett um and this is my daughter kenzie and she wants to share her story before jesus saved me i was a sick sinner yes i knew about jesus but i hadn't started loving trusting and following him quite yet i lied a lot and tried to hide it when i sinned i was also mean to my brother sometimes then i came to trust jesus when i was 5 years old for several months when we would talk about jesus i would say jesus is in my heart but when my parents asked me how i knew that i would say because i feel him there after a month or so my mom dad and i had a huge talk about jesus we talked about how jesus had come to save me from my sins and how much god loved me then i prayed and asked god for forgiveness for all my sins after trusting jesus all my sin died on the cross with him now i have a clean heart but i sometimes still sin instead of hiding or lying when i sin i ask others for forgiveness i try to be kind to my family in the outside world i also like to read my bible and tell my friends about jesus so they can know him too i believe that jesus is my savior that he died on the cross for my sins today i want to be baptized to show that i am in the family of god ephesians 2 8 says for you have been saved by grace through believing you do not save yourselves it was a gift from god [Applause] some technical difficulties kinsey do you believe and profess that jesus christ is your lord and savior yes i do then i baptize you in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit [Applause] i think we have one more baptism hey church family hey we have one more baptism uh coming and we're gonna wait a little bit here so yeah we get to hang out i just want you to introduce yourself to everybody okay you just say your name okay my name is evelyn hey evelyn do you confess and believe that jesus is your lord and it is my savior my privilege my sister to baptize your name the father son and spirit plug your nose here we go [Applause] so here's what that reminds me of and i don't think lauren will maybe maybe you'll be fine so lauren was super young uh when she had this moment with jesus and got baptized and and so maybe you're in here and you're like oh those kids and i'm just saying man i live with a ferociously godly woman who met him when she was sub 10 years old and that moment she had with jesus actu actually has set the tracks for for so many beautiful things that that god has done like it let the little children come to me is what jesus said and so and i was just so rejoice when like i i want all of us to have boring testimonies right boring testimonies like i never knew what it was like except to follow jesus that's a great story it's a great story we're going to end our service today by celebrating the broken body and shed blood of jesus christ it makes all of this possible right if you'll notice we've got some new little cups here you'll figure it out i don't feel like i need to cut why would you clap with that oh yeah there's new cups i did have a woman say i think my daughter's going to bring these home so they can be little chalices for a barbie so there's an idea it's an idea for you we provide communion primarily for baptized believers in jesus christ and so if that's you this morning i want to invite you to the table with us man so glad that you are here brother sister we have eternity together new heavens new earth it's going to be incredible if you're here today and that's not you yet i want you to see this as an invitation there is always a seat at this table for you always like your friend brought you here today your family has here because they want you to sit at this table with us to rejoice in the finished work of jesus christ that all of our sins past present and future have been fully freely and forever forgiven in the person and work of jesus that's what we're celebrating in this moment that's why if if you haven't said yes to g you shouldn't celebrate it's just this is like a little tiny thing that means nothing to you but for us who are in christ we're celebrating our union with christ like we've been saved despite us that we have found dying to self and the reign of jesus to be a thing of joy and not the burden that people tend to think it is and so we celebrate this union together as a family the bible says that on the night that jesus was arrested that he took bread and he broke it he tore it he said this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me [Music] then at the end of the meal he took the cup he blessed the cup i always want to draw your attention to the twofold movement of the cup he says when you gather drink it remembering the sufficiency of my death for you and then he says and i want you to look forward because you and i are going to drink this together one day and so remember we're in that space between so we're future oriented with a confidence in the now that jesus knew what he was buying on the cross of jesus christ so at the end of the meal he took the cup and he blessed it said as long as you gather remember until we drink again together amen why don't you stand with me we're going to sing the doxology and we'll be dismissed i love you god bless you i'll see you next week for sure [Music] praise him all right [Music] praise father have a great week church thank you for being here we love you this spirit was [Music] over the water [Music] when you fill the room [Music] when [Music] i'm here last questions [Music] [Music] [Music] open up [Music] [Music] i'm here [Music] stars [Music] on us [Music] is [Music] [Music] you're always [Music] on us [Music] oh [Music] you're here [Music] you're hearing [Music] [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] i want more [Music] i want more [Music] i want more [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] me [Music] [Music] i remember [Music] i [Music] i remember [Music] to you [Music] things [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] see [Music] here

Channel: The Village Church Resources

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Length: 95min 37sec (5737 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021