Sunday Service - 9/26/2021 - Matt Chandler - Unearthed: His Workmanship

[Music] you give me the strength to be restored this is how i [Music] is [Music] [Music] this is how i know i'm yours this is how i know i'm secure [Music] this is how i know you're my lord this is [Music] [Music] away [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] of your majesty every star every galaxy [Music] you shine like stars to know your heart heaven is [Music] for me is is is oh [Music] oh [Music] i wanna be where are you [Music] hey good morning church let's stand as we enter into a time of worship together praise him for what he has done jesus this morning together [Music] with a thousand tongues to lift one cry then from north to south and east [Music] is [Music] to raise our voices together with all the creation and citizens [Music] me [Music] cries [Music] christ be magnified [Music] so in light of who he is and what he has done for us he's finished work on the cross we die to our idols and we pursue what is better we pursue his glory let's sing this together and i won't bow to idols i'll stand strong and worship you if it puts me in the fire i'll rejoice cause you're there too [Music] [Music] brings transformation i'll be crucified with you cause is [Music] [Music] [Music] christ [Music] oh [Music] we [Music] let's get crazy to be frozen hey good morning before you take a seat if you could do me a favor b this would be incredible if you could just scoot to the center of the section we've got men and women who are making their way in and that really serves the greeting team and usher team if you can make some space on the isles hey welcome to the village church my name is josh patterson i serve as one of the pastors here on staff oh you can have a seat now yep may the lord bless that you ever been to that wedding where the guy forgets to seat the uh the crowd after that um but as i was saying i i am thrilled uh to be with you this morning and the nine o'clock service was great i'm excited for what the lord has for us together and if you're a guest with us i want to welcome you and uh just want to point you in a couple of different directions if you are interested in taking the next step here at the village church if you're interested in taking a next step here there's a couple of ways you could do that one you can text the word belong to this number five six five four nine five six five four nine text the word belong somebody will get in touch with you um and we would look forward to that conversation there's another option for you there's a card in the seat back in front of you you can take that card fill it out and drop it by any one of the black boxes on your way out or you can make your way to connection central connection central is just right outside these doors to my left your right and that is a room where men and women who their heart to serve this church is to have conversations with you about finding a place of belonging finding a place of connection here and as i said it would be a real honor we are today launching a new series and we're launching a new sermon series called unearthed and on your way in you likely received a handout and i'm going to walk you through just a little bit from a very high level about this handout and when we're thinking about this series on earth uh here's the hope is that god would allow us as a community but even more than that god would allow you as an individual to have a greater sense of what he has done in your life and what he is calling you to do so it's really a series about identity belonging and purpose and if we think about the questions that at different points in our life haunt us and then at different points in our life direct us those questions that sound like this who am i where do i fit where do i belong and what am i to do those are simple questions but if you consider how much those questions drive us and at times haunt us well our hope is that we would begin to unearth those answers and that unearthing process will be a process where we look into the scriptures and begin to see what god has created us to be and to do and so we want to come alongside and help serve you in that particular process and again i want us to know that this isn't just something for the church in a general sense it's for you like god has wired you and he is calling you into something really really great and a couple of ways that we want to come alongside and equip you in this is is we we're going to provide some worksheets and you can download those worksheets off the website you can join uh later this fall a workshop that we're going to be hosting here called domain and the domain workshop will be taking a deep dive and looking at your story at your gifts at the opportunities around you and taking a deeper dive into that question of purpose and then i want to explain something uh in terms of a partnership that we've created and have been forming over these last several months with an organization based out of colorado the organization is called the patterson center no relation to me but the patterson center is a trusted organization where one of the primary offerings that they have is something called life plan they are a trusted resource in life planning and the way that they approach this life planning process is one that we think will really serve us as a church and we want to invite it in to what we're doing here and so we have a couple of opportunities for us as a church one is through what is called life plan launch and that'll be an online opportunity with some online cohorts to walk through and explore your story your talents your gifts for what god is calling you specifically to do for such a time as this that's life plan launch life plan retreat is the same content but in a little bit more intimate and involved setting and life plan retreat will be in the spring of 22 more information to come we're going to talk about all of this uh throughout this series but i i am so excited not only for god to unearth some things in us but then to unleash us for his name and his fame and his renown so lord let it be i do want to let you know uh that over over the weekend on friday night uh one of members of this church the drake family uh their son little abram drake went to be with the lord on friday night abram uh valiantly won his battle with cancer and he's now in the presence of the lord and our hearts are deeply broken and yet anchored in the hope of jesus uh the drakes were in the nine o'clock this morning were able to to celebrate them and remind them again when we think about this question of where do i belong well they belong here they belong in this church family and for us to be able to come alongside them and love them and support them and care for them when we think about our 20 30 vision something that we're aspiring to do and to be as a community a line in that vision that says this that we want to exercise a ministry of presence we want to mourn with those who mourn rejoice with those who rejoice and we have we have that going on in our body right now and on tuesday afternoon at two o'clock right here in the worship center we're gonna have a service for little abram drake and have the opportunity to be together and the family is extending the invitation to you on tuesday afternoon to come and to be a part of that if you have the space and the desire again two o'clock tuesday right here let me pray and ask the lord to minister to this family and to be present among us in our time together lord it is with heavy hearts that we receive this news about little abram and lord i think about what he gave even in his weakness these jesus songs that he gave his family and probably unbeknownst to him gave a church community songs from a heart that was fading and yet a spirit that was strong and lord we ask for the ministry of your presence to be near jack and ashley and the boys for their family a family that's grieving and lord we know that as we gather this morning that they're not alone in grief that we have others among us whose hearts are broken and as we gather we want to gather being mindful of all of it and so that we're not crushed under the weight of it we look to you like where else do we go for our hope who else can we cling to but you and we thank you o god that the invitation is clear and is kind and is open that you will make a trade through your son where we can come to you in our weariness and our heaviness and you will give us a burden that is light so lord be present do what only you can do and father we also pray as we begin and step into this threshold of a new series we ask god that you would earth in us what you have put in us what is there we ask oh god that you would give us the courage and the community we thank you for your word which is our true north so would you shape us and would you lead us and lord would you unleash us for your name and your fame and your renown and so we begin our time and we continue our time declaring all hail king jesus it's in his name that we pray amen would you stand with us [Music] there was a moment when the lights went out when death he claimed [Music] the darkest day in history they're on the cross they made for sinners for every curse is where we find our hope for the earth [Music] lord of heaven and earth [Music] [Music] gives us hope beyond the grave promise of life eternal with him we hold on to these truths let's sing this together [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the king of life [Music] foreign [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] jesus [Music] jesus all hail the savior of the amen [Applause] so we have a sure and steadfast anchor in christ jesus we find our hope our peace our rest in him will comfort our hearts so sing this together the king of my heart [Music] let the king of my heart be the shadow [Music] oh he is [Music] he is [Music] oh he is [Music] oh he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're good [Music] [Music] [Music] you're never gonna [Music] never gonna let me down [Music] join every one [Music] you're good [Music] [Music] [Music] no [Music] foreign [Music] you're good [Music] you are good you're good yes amen yes father you are good you are the only explanation of how we can [Music] find rest and peace and hope even in the midst of tragedy lord in the midst of suffering we find our peace and our rest in you that your love for us out of your mercy and your grace that because of what christ has done that we have hope of what is to come that we can have confidence that you are faithful that you will be near to the brokenhearted you will heal the crushed in spirit lord and so we pray that over those who might be hurting right now or that you would give them rest give them peace that your spirit would move lord that christ would be glorified i pray that you'd help our unbelief lord when it's hard for us to see you're working i pray that we will look to the cross that you would be with us until the day that jesus returns lord give us faith we need you we ask that your spirit would move in your word this morning we love you we praise you it's in jesus name we pray amen [Music] hi church family my name is mandy aldridge my husband blake and i have had the privilege of serving in the training program as cohort leaders for the last four years and we also just recently began co-leading a home group our scripture today is ephesians 2 8-10 for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing it is the gift of god not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them this is the word of the lord thanks be to god hey good morning uh my son uh plays football i go to those games i am what you would probably expect knowing me and my personality at those games that means my voice probably this fall will sound a lot like this i don't have the rona i don't have allergies i just scream a lot you know that i know that i'm just trying to let you know how this happened they won 49 47. let's uh if you have your bibles no don't encourage that if you have your bibles uh i want you to turn to ephesians two uh we just read eight and nine uh i am going to point you back to uh all 10 verses or the first 10 verses of this chapter as we get started i want to pop up a little bit and i want to tell you what i'm thinking or what i was thinking uh when when we started to consider preaching at the village church in 2021 and so we started with our normal epiphany four-week series in january we do the same thing every year and then from there we did 12 weeks on the book of revelation i wanted to preach revelation to put in your guts courage and conviction and a refusal to shrink back as the world looks like it's losing its mind i wanted to call you into the fray i wanted to stir up in the deepest parts of you a kind of fearlessness based on the sovereignty of god and the power of jesus christ that's why we were in revelation one because i watched the news and i was like that's a horseman that's the horse of the apocalypse no i told you they've been here they're here right now right so that's why i wanted to do that there's been more stand-alone sermons this year and each one of those stand-alone sermons on purpose mortar and brick meant to help you understand what it looks like to love god love people and make disciples of jesus christ which is what we're doing here right uh and then we just did this gospel primer because i want you to i want you to get it i want you to get what the gospel is and what it's not and i want you to live out of it like like here's here's my hope if you kind of pull me aside you see me out and about you pull me aside and you're like bottom line what are you trying to do here i'm trying to unleash you on the world in such a way that the principalities and powers and this present darkness tremble tremble that that's what i'm after so that takes me into this series which we just called unearthed because i know some of you don't quite know how you fit into that you you hear me talking about these things and it stirs something in you but then you're not quite sure what to do after that and so on earth is meant uh to really come alongside of you and go let's think this way let's discover these things and then let's get after it and so that that's my hope if at any point across the next seven eight weeks you start going now what are we doing that's what we're doing like i have a deep desire that the principalities and powers of this present darkness by the way if that wigs you out i'm just quoting ephesians to you right that ain't those aren't my i didn't come up with that this week that that's the word of god i want them to be able to say what we see in the book of acts when the demon speaks to the seven sons of skiva and says i know jesus and i've heard of paul but who are you i don't want anybody in this room to get the but who are you now i want all of you to the person to play such a role in understanding who and what you are that principalities and powers would say i know jesus and i've heard of them you insert your name there so i want that for you but but maybe you you feel a little bit stuck you don't know kind of what that is you might even have the kind of church background where where you think you're a spectator and i'm the performer rather than understanding you have a call on your life you have a destiny that god's given you and what it might look like for you to step into that and live that well so when we think about the who and the what right when we think about that the the bible's going to kind of unpack it i would call it in three different levels here's here's the first level you're a human being right you have been made in the image of god you are distinct from the rest of creation so so i'm looking around and that's universal i don't think i need to preach a lot about that today i'm looking around just a lot of imago day happening in here right unless bootsies in your purse i i'm just looking around it's just us right human beings made in the image of god distinct among the rest of creation in this series which is eight weeks long i'm not going to talk a lot about the imago day we talk about this a lot when we talk about life when we talk about race when we talk about what the gospel implications for how we live our lives is we're always appealing to this every human being everywhere is equal in regards to dignity value and respect it is the foundation of how we as christians should see uh uh almost all the issues that are raging in our day right that's the first level the the second level is what i want to call your general identity that's the language i'm going to use general identity uh and your general identity is given to you by god and and it has everything to do with what you do with jesus so your general identity everybody in this room has one and it's one of two things right now you are a child of god hey look at me this isn't easy but it's true everyone in here has been created by god but not everyone in here is a child of god those are different ideas right we're all god's creatures is true we're all god's children is not true you are a child of god or no hang with me for just a second or you're a child of wrath now i know that little phrase doesn't sit well with modern sensibilities and so let me explain it if you as we get into this sermon it becomes clear to you oh i'm a child of wrath what that means is that you have decided not that god has decided but you have decided that you make a better god than god that's all that means you have said my desires what i want are apex in my life i don't care if there's a creator or not i'm going to do what i want to do god's response to that according to romans 1 is to turn you over to do what ought not be done you're tracking with me so if you're like child aroused you're judging i'm not judging you christ has come in the world to actually save you from that but you can still choose even today to say i'm a better god than god i'm smarter than the creator i know what's best for me and for those around me right you can do that but to do that is to put yourself in opposition to the creator and and i would just argue a little unwise if you thought more clearly maybe about yourself like i would think that knee replacement would help you understand i'm not a really great god i think the fact that maybe you flunked the eighth grade or that you you freak out in traffic should all be these signals that i probably wouldn't be the best god in the world that's going to stop us from trying but but this is what it means to be a child of wrath so that that's going to be general right and i'm my work today is general identity if we we think about the who and what when you leave here today my interest is you having a clear picture of am i a child of god as my foremost identity or am i a child of wrath do i reject that child of god nonsense and i'm doing me right that's what we're going to work on today and then the rest of the series although i'll keep making illusions to this is what i'm going to call specific identity and here's what i mean by this you are a unique man and woman created by god with a unique backstory unique skills and gifts and all of that comes together to form you and and god's doing something in that right and the more but but but general identity matters think about general identity like this that first button on your shirt you tracking with me on that like you get that first button right we got a shot you get that first button wrong right it's a little janky right like if i'm out here right now like hey guys are you even able to concentrate you're like who why do people hate him like that why won't somebody just go chandler you got your first button wrong like nobody gets the third button wrong you get the first button wrong so general identity child of god child of wrath is all about that first button specific identity actually can only be known in light of this general identity so with that said you need to know this is not a series about your self-esteem like i reject the whole notion of that i'm not here to make you feel good about yourself now i'm just not interested in those things but i do want to say there's something beautiful in you that god did and if we could see that and understand that the more we can understand general and specific identity the more we come alive in this world and the more we step into who we are and what god has given us to do and so that's the fight if we're gonna unleash you on the world to make trouble you have to understand who and what you are and the more you understand that the more free you are to cause problems and the more that you feel stuck in that the the more actually you pay too much attention to yourself you're tracking with me okay with that said uh my good friend trevin wax he he wrote a book called rethink yourself i would commend the book to you he takes these massive kind of philosophical theological ideas and he just boils it down and he puts it on the bottom shelf or where a guy like me uh can read and understand so if you're a reader you like to read or if you like to collect books i would just commend rethink yourself by trevan wax uh to you again it's a it's bottom shelf stuff it's not filled with a lot of philosophical big terms ideas it just kind of lays it out and in it he argues about uh the two predominant ways that you and i answer the question who and what am i right this is a driving force and so he says there's two predominant ways the the first is the one that most of us in this room are going to be marked by not all of us in this room but most of us are going to be marked by he describes it like this i'm going to put it on the screen so that as i talk you can keep looking up and go oh he describes it as looking in looking around and then looking up so who am i what am i how do i define myself well the first thing i do is i look in and then once i discover what's in there i i look around and then lastly i look up so so let me talk to you like this this way of understanding who and what you are requires you to look inside of yourselves and find your deepest desires that's step one what do you most deeply want what's that deep thing in you that your heart your gut is saying you have got to have this to be happy this is fascinating to me 91 of americans this is gallup agreed with this statement the best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself right so i l i look in so little matt chandler like nine years old he's looking at okay what's my deepest desires and then once i have those desires right that this is what i want this is what's going to make me happy then i look around and see who will celebrate that with me who else believes this who else will celebrate this who else will affirm this who else will come around this and go yes that's what's most true that's you that's the who that's the what and then once i've got that i'm not opposed to spirituality i just have to look around and find the spirituality that makes all that work you tracking me so i've got deep desires i find people who share those desires we form a little community and then if we're still kind of feeling a little empty let's find a spirituality that kind of we can sprinkle on top of this so that we look in look around and then lastly let's find some things to sprinkle on this and be spiritual people this is the prevailing and predominant view of our age and everyone in this room is consistently and constantly manipulated and assaulted by this idea you can have it all trust your heart go with your gut be you be the only you that you can be right this is the prevailing god of our day and the whole system is set up to pull you in this direction do you know that you touch your phone 2600 times a day the average adult touches their phone 2600 times a day look at me i'm going to give you that 400 of those are you checking email and calendar that means all the rest of them are aren't i amazing man aren't is it my way of thinking and my way of living and my way of doing whatever correct 22 i'm giving you the 400 200 times a day aren't i a great god isn't what i believe correct reinforced over and over again every disney cartoon listen little mermaid got some of y'all ariel got you you didn't even see it coming and what she was doing is like forget what your daddy says forget what your people want forget what it's all about you sis get those legs that wasn't in the first service that's free oh i need to dial back in right this is this is the mantra of our day you be you you live your best life nobody gets to tell you what to do you follow your heart you look inside and find what you most deeply want and you go get it there are significant issues to this i could do about a bajillion that's not even a number i'm gonna give you three because i'm on a clock here's the first one that whole project that whole project depends on you like it all lands on you and parents i'm pleading with you to be in the lives of your kids it's a lot to put on a kid that's nine and ten going hey would we like for you to just structure your own moral reality and would love for you to just kind of structure meaning and purpose someone's telling your kid what to believe what to think and how to live it's a job god actually gave you right so that kind of passive approach to parenting needs to die right needs to die you don't want an aerial disciple in your kid right you can't have that it's not overly complex ju just be there right just be there so so it all depends on you and this is why i want to try to explain this like if you've been trying to get your mind around why is everyone so angry anxious depressed sad why is this all happening it's happening because of this here's why if i look into my deepest desires and then i create my personhood based on those desires then if you disagree with my desires you actually are assaulting my personhood you tracking with me so if i go my deepest desires this sexual identity or my deepest desire is this political identity and i say to you well actually that's ultimately going to harm you and harm those around you now i said i'm an oppressor right like i'm not assaulting your desire i'm assaulting you as a human you want to know why people are so angry right now why they're so lonely and depressed and anxious it's because everything we're watching and everything we're listening to and everything on our phones going you you you you your desires what you want what you're after you get your destiny listen if you're a teenager in this room a young adult i'm telling you are being bombarded with this you touch that phone this is what it's telling you i'm telling i'm not overstating you touch that phone what you're doing 22 hundred times a day the algorithm is set up to tell you you're right you're good follow your heart get yours trust your gut go get it this has made us angry lonely and depressed and nobody can see it we're too busy following our hearts to our own destruction the second thing that is an issue right the first is that the whole project depends on you here's the second thing gosh i gotta hurt can i just lay out like what's just clear to see it's impossible for you to define yourself without comparing yourself to other people it's impossible to even get a sense of the world without looking around just like looking in first you still by the way of praxis have to look around to see what that looks like so let me let me give this as an illustration um let's say you find in your little nine-year-old heart a sense of justice so you're a firstborn um you know just right and wrong he can't handle you know wrong watch your little brothers and sisters i mean just just sense of justice and so as that plays out you decide i'm gonna be a lawyer i want to bring justice to bear so i'm going to become a lawyer but the question of what kind of lawyer is always answered by seeing this kind and going not like that or this kind of going more like that you can't define yourself by yourself it's absurd so not only does it lead to loneliness and anger and a defining your purpose hood by what you feel but then on top of that it's impossible again you want to understand all the kind of depression and anxiety and anger we're experiencing our day what happens when you tell little kids to create their own moral reality to shape their own it's impossible the very thing certainly you're not parenting that way right like certainly you're not parenting well how how do you feel today about dinner right no you're not you're not so so but here's the big one here's the big one about this kind of let the divi that's your desires define you our desires are deceptive so let's talk i love you let's talk we're friends do you even really know what you want has anybody like found in themselves and i know the answer this is rhetoric anybody looked inside and found competing desires like two desires that you have you just can't have both of them right you got these two desires but they're at war with one another how about this one this one be more universal even if you're nine years old in here now have you have you had that thing where you're like if i could just get this i'd be happy it's this job this relationship this house this car this you fill in the blank and you got it and found out it was a lie well then what do you got to do well you got to get back in those desires okay that one yeah what's another one so so you you can't the desires are deceptive the the big lie the great manipulation of our day is this pursue what you want most okay you can have it all hey look at me no you can't hey now let's stop cause that's actually good news ready let me say it again you can't have at all now breathe out because some of you are trying to have it all and you're exhausted and frustrated and angry i'm saying stop it you can't have it all that's why david says the boundaries have fallen for me in pleasant places i can choose to be a great i have a desire to be a good husband i have a deep desire to be a good daddy and i have a desire to travel and preach the gospel everywhere those desires can be in conflict with one another so i'm constantly saying less of this for more of this less of this for more of this these are competing you have competing desires so how am i supposed to form my whole who am i and what am i based on my desires that are constantly changing that are constantly in competition for one another i just want to keep saying it to you this is bombarding you every second of every day you be you don't let anyone get in your way trust your heart just do it the idea that any external pressure is somehow oppressive now let me say this about this framework this framework is not all evil look at me because this is a weird thing to say um in a church that has some of the theological leanings we have listen to me there are really beautiful things in you there are really amazing things in you like god has put some things in you that are so stunning and overwhelming that if you could ever actually believe them about yourself and see them clearly i think you would cause the kind of trouble that i'm asking the lord to help you create so it's not all bad but we have to be aware of it we have to be aware and we have to acknowledge that even those of us who are children of god in this room are pulled by this we are um influenced by this and we're constantly being manipulated by this idea look in look around look up and in fact i'm just i'm doing it some of you are here today because you looked inside of yourself and you found either because of your family of origin or some other bent by birth that you're a moral conservative so you've just kind of always been conservative and so what you do in the south if you're a moral conservative kind of oh okay these are my values you start looking around and going who shares those remember you look in and then you look at and you're like oh who's oh you know what i can see the evangelical christians like these things so you know what i am i'm an evangelical christian and so you start coming to church on sunday why because these are your people why because you looked inside of yourself first you didn't look up you looked inside and you said these are my values who shares my values oh christian so there's no surrender to the lordship of jesus there's no joy in being a child of god there's no willingness to be obedient and to lay that down no you just sprinkle it on top of your life right a little salt little pepper a little seasoning no surrender gross just some seasoning you and i are being constantly manipulated by this and it's important that we understand that that's what's happening every time you see things explode in online over political things over uh spiritually anytime you see the the rah-rah of anger and rage out there you need to remember it born in this space right here because if you challenge my desires you're saying i'm less than human and i can't have that and that's what's happening right now in the division in our nature nation you you can think it's more ideology ideological than that there are some ideologies that are demonic that are at play right now but i'm telling you what we're witnessing in the church and outside the church in regards to division is tied to this reality my desires are uppermost and i need to find people who agree with that and reinforce it and then let's sprinkle a little religiosity on top so i feel some sort of transcendent spiritual connection but this isn't the only way this isn't the only way that we try to answer the question of who and what are we so so maybe you're here uh and you you you come from a completely different grid like you understand what i'm saying because you live in this day and age but maybe you're back maybe you come from a a family of origin or maybe you come from a background where you're a first or second generation maybe you're uh east asian or you're asian or you're indian and there's a different world view in place there's a different structure the the second one is looking around looking up and then looking in right so if the first one is looking in looking around and then looking up the the second one and actually that one flipped on its head is let me look around right let me look up and then finally let me look in so this these this way of seeing this framework is born of uh by and large non-western culture um and and what they say is the community uh has social constructs and beliefs that bear its weight on the individual so the individual isn't looking inside of themselves to determine they are receiving from their community this is what we do right so you make ace you become a doctor you become a lawyer you're going to represent our family you're going to and there's an immense amount of pressure by the community for the individual to be formed by the desires of what's best for the community rather than what's best for the individual in fact the individual only looks at their only their internal desires to bring them into check for the desires of the greater community so let me give you a couple examples arranged marriage would be an example of this right another example of this would be what i was talking about that you come from a structure where the pressure of the family unit is we've got your whole life marked out for you now we need you to step into it aunts and uncles and moms and dads and everybody's kind of that pressure is on you so you're like what do i want to do it's like here's what you're going to do and and just like the last one there's some really good things about this some really terrible things about this uh let me start with what's good because if by and large i'm looking around here predominant culture would look at this as what what do you mean oh this is the overbearing footloose dad again i could use almost any movie you name right oh there's an external oppressive force of community trying to tell somebody what to do trying to rob them of their personhood right that's the language their personhood oh you mean you have a desire that's not your personhood that's a desire but not in our framework our framework is that desire defines me so i'm so frustrated with you all the time can't you get it are you trying to squelch my humanity how dare you so in this one maybe here's the one that i think will work um before the more wholesome um moral christmas movies hit the scene we all watched the same one right what was it huh it's a wonderful life thanks lauren you knew my outline so that's cheating it's a wonderful life where you say oh we're this is a younger crowd it's a wonderful life it is a black and white movie until they they put some color in there so if if i've lost you because of your age let me just tell you quickly the story um george bailey is in um bedford falls small town he wants out he wants to see the world he wants to live his life but instead he inherited his dad's little dinky company he's stuck in this terrible little office and and every time he wants to get out the pressure and the need of bedford falls bears its way on him and he feels stuck and so finally he can't do it anymore and so he goes and he's about to jump off a bridge and apparently the the dumbest angel ever thought about in the history is given to him to try to save his life and so uh the angel gives him his wish you never were and bedford falls becomes pottersville and everything he loved falls apart and here's what happens at the very end of the movie when he's back and he's running he's like i love my life never mind and he comes into his house and the entire town is there and they're throwing the money he needed in this big jar and he's holding his wife and they're all crying we all knew in that moment that's noble there's something beautiful about that that to give yourself for the good of others there's something noble in that so even in this framework there is good it just makes a crummy god in regards to the how we define the who and what of who we are there are two primary issues with this idea the first is there can be a stifling conformity and what i mean by that is the expectations can become unbearable and this kind of framework is usually called a shame based culture you're tracking with me so the power of the community is to use shame to bring about conformity and we know the gospel is the antithesis of shame and yet these cultures are predominantly you shame as a weapon and so that the expectations can become stifling the shame can just gut us and paralyze us and the other thing that can happen is there can be in this kind of framework and enshrined inequality is just a matter of fact so if you've ever heard of what's called the caste system the caste system is you're born at a certain level and you don't move out of that level you're not allowed to move out of that level you're not supposed to move out of level and any breakout from the level in which you were born we're going to drag you back down to where you belong right this is what happens in this framework so what we're seeing here is the looking in and around and then sprinkling with some religiosity isn't going to answer our question about general identity and then looking around formed by what's up and then finally looking in to see how we can sacrifice for the great community also doesn't get us there and and so the biblical way the the way that i think leads to i don't think at this point 20 something it leads to the life i think you're hungry for is to just look up just look up and then the around and in will take care of itself in fact over the next seven weeks i'm gonna do a lot of around and in after we get the general identity set because remember it's about buttons we gotta get that first one right so so let's go back to our text earlier hopefully got your bibles open in the first four verses here's what we hear about ourselves they were dead in our trespasses and sins they were following the course of this world now i want you to pay attention to this next phrase and i want you to see how tightly related to the first who and what are we framework it is stuck in the passions of our flesh listen carrying out the desires of the body and the mind do you see what just happened there that the scriptures are arguing this to look in and find the desires of your body and your mind and then to live out of that desire makes you more like an animal and less like a human so that for you to trust your heart and follow your gut and to do you actually makes you more like an untrained dog that digs in the trash and can't obey but is fully immersed by his compulsions makes you more like that than the image bearer you are you look around and you see the bestial nature of humanity in our day you see the brokenness and anger and violence of our day it's because we're acting more like animals than human beings and that's what happens when we trust our gut go with our heart follow our desires that's what ephesians 4 ephesians 2 is arguing but then there's this great thing that happens in verse 4 where you got the three-letter word but and you got this great but god who is rich in mercy with the great love with which he loved us made us alive right so there's this transfer you're not going to be an animal you're not going to be a child of wrath i'm going to make you alive in christ and then we get the process by which that happens that actually i'll just go to our verse so so look there in verse 8. i'm going to take a sip of water i'm sorry for by grace you have been saved through faith to qualifiers and this is not your own doing it is the gift of god and it's not a result of works so that no one may boast so let's talk about this how are we rescued from how are we rescued from living by our desires going with our gut trying to define the who and what i am by that first framework well we're made alive how are we made alive how are we turned into children of god two things and this is where it just demolishes both frameworks by grace through faith and then let's look back at the two qualifiers the first qualifier for how grace through faith works how you get to define who and what you are is that it is not done via human initiative right he says it right here in the text this is not your own doing which means you're not saved because you took the journey inward you with me you didn't look down in your heart and go oh i know what to do and how to define myself i need to give authority to something outside of me and follow that external authority that's not what you did god gave you grace you took a step of faith even that faith given to you by god and that begins the process of our sonship our daughtership but it's not just not of your initiative which means it's not about looking in but look at what he says next it's not by works so it's not by looking around but here's where i feel because of our location i need to pause fear one of the fears that just always is in me for us because of where god's placed us is that you might believe that what christianity is is you looking around and seeing how we're supposed to act and then just trying to act that way are you tracking with me on that like maybe you're just like putting on evangelical clothes does that make sense like oh what are we supposed to wear what are we supposed to say how are we supposed to okay let me let me stop doing what i'm doing let's start doing this and let me call that christianity he's like no that's not how salvation works salvation isn't in you because you figured out salvation is not outside of you you get the behavioral pattern and you begin to live it out that's not how this works see if salvation is not because of human initiative and neither is it a reward for good deeds then this is about something we are given by god let me just state as clearly as i can ultimately let's make eye contact because we we're we like each other you are not self-created you are god created you are listen you are not self-defined that work is way too big for you you are defined by your creator are you are you with me you are not self-created you did not create yourself and and if you buy into that pressure to cultivate yourself to project the right image of yourself based on your desires and the pressure of the world around you i i just going to keep saying this you're going to be angry and lonely and anxious and depressed because it is a work too great for you you're not self-created here's what's great you are created you're not self-defined you are given by god a definition here's my favor remember we were dead but now we're alive listen to first john 3 1 see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be children called children of god i love this and so we are here's what you can't ever take from me i am a child of god lauren could leave me i'm a child of god my kids could hate me i'm a child of god the economy could collapse i'm a child of god i lose my voice forever for doing something dumb like this and i'm a child of god not defined by preaching teaching i'm not defined by what i was or what i currently am or even what i'll become you know i'm a child that's given to me i didn't find that i didn't discover that i didn't create that i haven't figured out how to project that correctly if anything my projection of what it looks like is questioned by many what god has said about me and what is most true about me is that i was dead and now i'm alive and that despite my past and goodness sakes if you only knew despite my present whatever's coming for me in 2022 and beyond he is for me not against me there is no condemnation for me and his grace is sufficient for me now gosh i'm i'm in trouble let's look at there's my intro i'm kidding okay don't panic don't panic i want you to look at verse 10 and i want to just show you where we're going and then two things that i'm gonna conclude oh man let's look at verse 10 for we are his workmanship that that's the greek word that we get our word poem from i always think that makes this verse really cool for we are his poetry now listen to this because there's a brain bender created in christ jesus for good works what kind of good works not fleshly good works where i'm gonna do good work so i can look in it am i a good person well let me yeah i've done some good works not a look around good works uh what are the good works other people are doing let me do those good work so that as i look around i can define myself as a good person no what are the good works that are born of christ jesus in me what does my sonship and the spirit of god dwelling inside of me lead to in regards to good works this is not salvific i don't do works to be a child of god i am a child of god and as he grows me by grace through faith good works become a part of who i am not random good works good works that were given to me this is fascinating look at this that god prepared beforehand listen to this that we should walk in them let me make this statement in the hopes it sticks in your soul let's let's do it come on you were made for the day and the day was made for you that's awesome right you were made for the day you god's workmanship prepared in advance if earlier in ephesians one it would say before the foundation of the earth was late like god wasn't waiting for you to be born to see what kind of material he was dealing with like before the foundation of the earth was laid you but the day you for the day and the day for you this changes everything about our lives which means on the mundane tuesday of my life i was made for the day and the day was made for me you know what's happening this morning i was made for the day and the day was made for me you know what's happening for you you were made for the day and the day was made for you this should help jostle you out of being spectators there wasn't anything in that passage about pastors in the word in that passage about apostles in the word in this text about deacons no no you god made you you are god's workmanship christ jesus has prepared you for good works that you would do and he has created the days of those good works for you so that you were made for the day and the day was made for you this isn't about your self-esteem this isn't about you looking inward at how awesome you are although i think there's really beautiful things in you this is us looking up and being blown away by the fact that having been created by a creator and being handed in an unshakable identity every sorrow in my life's been redeemed every victory has been put in its right place my natural bents redeemed by jesus christ for what ultimately for the glory of god but for right now i was made for this day and this day was made for me part of me standing here with a voice that apparently can't break is me being made for this day and this day being made for me my no that's next week sermon let me stop let me conclude like this since i'm already way over at this point let me two things one if you're a christian i don't want us to pretend that the pull of that first framework isn't on us all the time all the time 2 600 times a day you're told that your desires are you almost every movie you watch the music you listen to they're they're forming this the stuff we're letting our kids watch they're forming this your desires are who you are what do you think if you bring up questions about life or sexuality the whole world flares up like like you just tried to kill them well because if their desires are their personhood you actually just did according to their framework it's just a framework that's enslaving everybody so here's my invitation we have built a lot around this and i want to invite you into the good work of unearthing these things in you we've we've covered general identity and i hope you're able to go no i'm a child of god i know i've trusted jesus as my lord and savior i've laid down my yes and as best i know in this moment but by grace through faith i'm following after him he's not done with me yet but i'm on the road i want to encourage you all the more to let's do some work here um i don't know if you've ever heard of the concept of spiritual bypass let me explain it when there been significant um trauma in our lives we we have a tendency to instead of wanting to go through that wanting to go around it so so we do what's called spiritual bypass there's there's two primary paths of spiritual bypass so you've got some trauma in your life it's significant trauma and and so what you do is you you over theologize it right well i guess i just gotta forgive jesus forgive me i'll just forgive so no mourning no no um sitting there and letting your heart lament before god at what occurred just well christians aren't supposed to be sad that's spiritual bypass the only way to go through stuff is to go through it there are things in your spirit you will not go around there are things in your heart you will not go around and i'm not trying to psychoanalyze squat i'm saying you kind of take theology and armor up with it that's called spiritual bypass in the same coin on the other side is when you you come across wild charismatics that don't want to go through they won't talk about breakthrough and they want to and they won't go through it it's how can i not deal with this hurt in me how can i not come to to how can i avoid the face-to-face reality that this is in my past or that this is where i am or that and so we try to get around it rather than go through it and i want to just make an appeal come do the work man we've worked our tails off for you here we've got the domain workshop that we're going to work on some of this stuff we've got life plan retreats and online platforms we've built so that we can come alongside him and go let's walk through it together gosh it's awful and it hurts but but god heals the spirit will meet us in that space he'll heal us in that space let's let's step into it and then let me let me say this to the unbeliever if you're here today not a christian and you're like oh man i might be child of wrath because i don't want to do any of that i want to just do what i want to do okay well god's going to let you do that but let me throw this out how does this grace faith thing work like let's get on the ground like what does that really look like and this is i think that's such great news if you want to know him if you want to follow him if anything i'm saying today or anytime you gather with the family of faith and you hear these guys and something stirs up in you you're like i i want that i don't know how to do it not sure what it looks like i'm pretty terrified of what that looks like but but i want it look at me that's the work of grace that's how small it is i like like i i want that and so if if grace through faith it is the pathway then what does it look like for you to take just that tiny little seed of man i i've been trying to define myself by my desires i'm with you pastor because i i don't know about jesus but i'll tell you what i am lonely i don't know about jesus but i'll tell you this i am angry i don't know about jesus but i tell you this you bring up sexuality you bring up life you bring up politics i find all sorts of things queuing up in me but i can man something you're saying it resonates with that it's just this tiny little gift of grace so if you would let's just keep stay with me if you would take the tiniest little step of faith so so maybe um maybe read the bible with your christian friend this week just tell your christian friend john chapter one let's read it together and you and your friend read john get together have a drink and talk about i don't even this pastor i don't care what you're drinking just get together and talk about john chapter one that tiny little step of faith is like fuel on that grace that grace grows even bigger and then faith responds in kind and then belief is gifted and before you know it you're a child of god we're baptized in you and you're one of us we got you or he got you we don't we don't we don't get anybody what would it be like for you if if the spirit of god's giving you that just that little seed of grace to respond today i know some of you're like man i got no christian friend i came here and this is where my parents used to go or i came here just because it's on the way so man we got you fam like we we've got men and women that will be up here we've got men and women that will be in connections we've got men and women on the back well why don't you just go no no i just i feel like i've got that little thing of grace that he's talking about you pray for me look that's that's such a tiny little step like what would it look like for you to take that little step of faith that's going to breathe life into that grace and then these two things become these powerful lungs that form and shape us for the rest of our lives we have to get this first button right are you a child of god you're a child of wrath to be a child of wrath is to in this moment go yeah yeah whatever i'm going to do what i want to do listen here's the terrifying aspect of god's wrath it's not tornadoes and hurricanes and cancer or whatever else you might be defining it in your mind as it's god going that's what you want i will turn you over to pursue that which is not proper i'm pleading with you to come out of that today and telling you you can come out of that today let me pray for us father bless these men and women thank you for our time together today as long as it's gone pray that you would root in a spirit of the living god this general identity of children of god that we're your sons we're your daughters that you delight in us rejoice in us want us in your presence want to be in our presence thank you i ask for my friends in here who they're they just feel jammed up right and they feel stuck would you by your grace unstick some of us this morning we don't know how often in our lives or how many more times in our lives that little thing of grace will be given to us and so i pray that you would give us great courage to respond this morning maybe just beginning to read the bible with a friend maybe coming and receiving prayer from one of these men and women would you activate our faith as you've extended that sweet gift of grace we're lost in a sea of despair help us it's for your beautiful name i pray amen would you stand with me as we sing amen church we're going to sing this bridge together uh just as asking the lord asking the spirit to move to do this work within us to tear down uh any strongholds that the enemy has put in place that that blocks us from seeing him in his fullness so let's let's sing this together in faith asking for the spirit to move for the spirit to do this work [Music] hit the ground [Music] come awake [Music] i hear [Music] yeah let him pour it out don't you have a seat we're going to end our service the way we always do in a celebration of the broken body and shed blood of jesus christ we provide communion for baptized believers in jesus and so if that's you want to invite you to the table if that's not you i can't say this now we love that you're hanging out with us this morning like you're welcomed in this place but but the lord's table communion uh belongs to those who have made the decision that i'm trusting in christ completely for my salvation that all of my sins past present and future are fully freely and forever forgiveness that's not where you are we love you you're welcome in this place but you haven't said yes to that and and so you can't celebrate union with christ until we say yes to that and so i want to just say even as we participate there is always a seat at the table for you to say yes to jesus to surrender our life to believe that his death resurrection and ascension has made all things new it is what pulls out the chair and invites you to sit with us so in time we pray that you'll join us saints this morning the bible tells us that on the night that jesus was arrested that he took bread and he broke it saying this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me at the end of the meal he took the cup he tells us to remember his sacrifice to root ourselves in his forgiveness but he also says i'm gonna drink this cup with you again which puts our eyes with hope to the future so remembering our forgiveness and staring into our hope we drink this morning we've got a couple of baptisms this morning so we're going to celebrate new life among us yeah let me say this next week is our encounter night 5 to 6 15 6 30. i'm gonna pray for our sick and pray for our church i'm gonna pray for this city in town i'm gonna pray that god will continue to activate all these things plan on joining us for that's one of my favorite things we do two baptisms we're gonna celebrate like crazy we're gonna sing the doc solids and be dismissed i love you guys god bless hi church family i am robin owens and i have the pleasure of baptizing auburn owens today auburn do you confess that jesus christ is your lord and savior and believe that he died for you on the cross and do you trust him as your savior forsaking all others it is my joy to baptize you in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit [Applause] hey church family i'm just a placeholder there's we have another baptism coming they're getting dressed in their fancy clothes and uh i'm just here to tell jokes here they are oh thank you for sparing me good morning um my name is brittany cox i'm kennedy cox and i'm just so thankful to be here today to baptize her this is my daughter do you believe and confess that jesus christ is your lord and savior i do and it is my joy to baptize you in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit amen church let's stand together and as we sing the doxology i just want to remind you that we will have men and women up here at the front who would love to pray over you if you were looking for answers if you were looking for just somebody to to listen to you that we'd love to to do that up here at the front so feel free to come up after we see this together [Music] hear me [Music] praise father son you dismissed go in peace [Music] let it be our only prayer let it be [Music] [Music] let your name [Music] lady [Music] [Music] let your name be [Music] here on earth as it is [Music] foreign [Music] let it be oh [Music] will be done here on earth [Music] be glorified [Music] i [Music] your kingdom [Music] as it is [Music] [Music] your kingdom come your will be done here on earth your name [Music] let it be our own prayers [Music]

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Length: 95min 1sec (5701 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021