The Breadth of the Gospel – Sermons – Matt Chandler – 9/7/21

hi guys pastor matt chandler here pray that this sermon this resource uh be used by god in conjunction with you belonging to a local church to grow you and sanctify you in your faith if these resources bless you would you consider giving back to us here at tbc you can do that either through the app or you can go online to tbc resources and give there again pray that this blesses you and grows you in your love for jesus christ [Music] good morning family my name is carlos palacio and i have served in recovery for over 10 years i will be reading in spanish from colossians 1 15 through 20. reconciliation this is the word of the lord thanks be to god well good morning that makes me wish that i took high school more seriously if you have your bibles grab those uh i do want to show you something kids let that be a lesson to you dial in all right uh if you have your bibles i do want to pull some pretty significant things uh out of this passage and this is uh part two of a of a two-part series where i just wanted us to get back a little bit to the gospel uh to look at the gospel to consider what the gospel is and so we said last week in fact what we looked at last week was what i called the depth of the gospel namely that the gospel isn't some kind of past event in your life that you look back on and go that's the door that i walked through to become a christian but that the gospel actually was something that you and i are standing in right now it's not just a past event but it is the thing that marks and makes our lives as christians and so we covered that at length uh last week that in order to be a christian uh we have to believe that christ has died for our sins well first we have to believe that we're actually sinners that we've fallen short of the glory of god and then accept by faith uh alone grace alone that christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves and i wanted to press hard because we're in the bible belt so if all the gospel is is some past event and there's no present reality then i ask you just to consider whether or not you're actually a christian that the bible knows nothing of i was baptized when i was seven so i'm a follower of jesus the bible goes if you follow jesus you're a follower of jesus that's kind of how the the bible looks at it so now we're not talking about perfection uh we're not even talking about fully mature yet we are saying that in our lives there's some semblance of fruit that fruit being i hate sin and i want to follow jesus and so i wanted to press rightly press that if there's none of that in your life then i'm not sure how you're defining the christian faith you might be talking about being a moral conservative kudos but that's not christianity you might have a story of i used to do this and i don't do it anymore i do these things that's not christianity christianity is i believe that christ has died for my sins that i am in a relationship with god through his work and that i am to follow him with my life as best i know how in any given moment so even if it looks messy even if you're not quite where you want to be even if everybody else is like man you got issues that's okay as long as there's a jesus is my lord i'm pursuing him as best i can where i am and i am trusting that the spirit of god is gonna continually work on me the rest of my life and so that that was depth now this week what i want to do and i don't have enough time to do it we're going to do it is talk about the breadth of the gospel right so last week was the depth this is the breadth and the breadth of the gospel is wildly controversial in church history and even in our present moment because you and i are westerners for the most part and and there's nothing wrong with that right you should never despise where you live or where god placed you that's god's stuff right so we're westerners which means our plausibility structure orders our whole world around a bit being an individual and so for many of us when we hear gospel we think of personal salvation now you're not wrong it's just incomplete the bible doesn't just talk about the gospel as individual conversion the gospel is the good news that god's redeeming everything the good news of the gospel is that god has bound the enemy and is taking all that is rightfully his back which is everything uh and so what i want to do is i want to look at the bible today and i want to show you that the gospel is bigger than your conversion and then i want to step into a space that's going to be awkward and heavy and some are going to wish i wouldn't have done it just stayed on the passage but conscience bids me to make things heavy and awkward today you looking forward to that i'm not no it's fine don't don't anyway um the the scriptures are clear that when god created man and woman he he gave them what has been called really throughout christian history the cultural mandate right fill the earth and subdue it the cultural mandate was this command to adam and eve so if you know your bible well that you had eden that was ordered for human flourishing that that's what you're reading about in genesis one and two you've got the establishment of eden that's ordered the presence of god is there shalom is there joy is there the presence of god is there and the command to adam and eve the cultural mandate is have lots of babies and spread this all over the wild untamed world that's the cultural mandate and since that day human beings have done just that they have built governments they have created systems they have built cities they have they have subdued the earth and they have filled the earth this is the cultural mandate now what we believe as christians is that when sin entered the cosmos through our rebellion we talked about that last week that it fractured that and really made it that whatever we create has a bent towards it and that bent is not towards worship and acknowledgement of a creator god but actually is bent the opposite way so the gospel not only saves individuals but begins to redeem and reform and restore everything that's broken from society to the cosmos now i'm not saying that ultimately you and i build utopia that's not going to happen you heard me preach revelation that happens when christ returns but for your joy and the glory of god we have been made salt and light in a world and by faithful presence are meant to push back what's dark and establish what's life that's why i've said for 20 years christians should never be bored you just should not join in with the boredom of our age because the purpose for which you work live dwell and play has on it not only the eternal significance of belonging to the kingdom of god but on top of that you carry with you the visible representation of the defeat of darkness right no y'all don't want that y'all want to just watch netflix that's cool i heard there's some new stuff coming stranger things four go get it right so what i want to show you is that the bible paints a bigger picture of the gospel than just your individual salvation let's look at this passage here's a great study for if you don't know how to study your bible as we read this passage i would just encourage you underline or circle every time this passage uses the word all and then this next week spend some time kind of chiseling away at that and figuring out what that means but let's read this let me read it for us this is colossians 1 15-20 really is one of my favorite passages in the bible he is the image he being jesus jesus is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together and he is head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of the cross i want to highlight a couple of all's all things were created through him and to him and he is before all things here's what we got you have a picture here of the authority of jesus christ remember when ricky bobby prayed uh dear six pound eight ounce baby jesus all wrapped up in swaddling cloth in a manger as much as the incarnation is astounding jesus isn't some helpless baby he is the king of kings the lord of lords and all authority is his he is before all things he predates all things and all things everything was created through him and for him so that he not only is the active agent in everything that exists but that everything exists actually exists for him and is moving back to him this is the jesus of the bible he doesn't make suggestions he has complete authority there is no court for you to take jesus to you tracking with me like well ah there's no one you can appeal to he is the king of kings and lord of lords there is no authority greater than him he is before all things all things were created by him and they are also created for him he is perfect in his authority this is the god that we serve but we also see that all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell in him you want to know what god is like look at jesus he is the image of the invisible god that this all has to do with the presence of god and the purpose of god you want to know what god is up to in the universe look at jesus why did jesus come he came not to condemn the world but to save the world from condemnation you see in the person of jesus not just perfect authority but the purposes of god in his creation namely our joy and his glory and then lastly and the one i want to highlight is there in verse 19 for in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell actually in verse 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven by making peace by the blood of his cross so if you wanna you wanna have some nerd fun this week you can look up that greek word all there uh and and here's what you'll find it means everything it means all and here's what's crazy about this passage like when he say all it's all all right in heaven and on earth visible and invisible so that god is reconciling to himself in christ not just individuals but everything even creation is being reclaimed and redeemed on the cross of jesus christ this is what the book of romans tells us when the bible says that creation was subjected to futility and hope as it awaits the revealing of the sons of god right so even creation is beautiful as it is i don't know if you saw that sunrise this morning you're in the 11 probably not but it was astounding and it was broken it was astounding and it wasn't as beautiful it was supposed to be why because all of creation has been subjected to futility and hope until what the revealing of the sons of god the reconciling work of jesus christ that means that the gospel saves us as individuals but then you and i get pulled back in to our purpose which is to live out and participate in that cultural mandate right to to form and to cultivate spaces where humanity flourishes in fact i love this quote by james davidson hunter he is uh the chair of sociology at the university of virginia he wrote an incredibly brilliant and difficult book uh called to change the world and here's a quote from that book indeed redemption through christ represents a reaffirmation of the creation mandate not its annulment when people are saved by god through faith in christ they are not only being saved from their sins they are saved in order to resume the task mandated at creation the task of caring for and cultivating a world that honors god and reflects his character and glory you hear him so that that task given to us at creation where sin fractures what we build a fracture our systems fracture everything seen and unseen when we get pulled back into the life of god through salvation he reorders us to participate in our original purpose which is to push back darkness establish order and light for the flourishing of humanity and whether you believe me or not today that's just that's a lot better than netflix but like rather than watching other people do heroic acts what if you just lived your life as a heroic act in in the kingdom of god what might that look like and so listen i know where we are i know how busy we are i've got three kids i know what that's like like so when are we going to find time to push back darkness pastor man i love when you ask you just walked right into it i'm glad you asked so here's the great news of the bible the bible's not asking you to add anything to your life the bi this only point with four sub points um the only thing god is asking you to do in the scriptures because the holy spirit dwells inside of you is to live with a great deal of intentionality your life is you're living it you don't add things you just do what you do with greater intentionality we've called this for 18 years intentional living when we consider the proximity of our world when we consider where we work where we live where we eat where we work out where our we are constantly thinking through the lens of i'm a citizen of a different kingdom we're constantly looking through the lenses of the purpose that i am here is to be a herald of the good news of the gospel of jesus christ both in life and in speech and so let's talk about what it looks like to participate in the purpose for which we are created once we become followers of jesus christ now here would be the first ones we think about um as we think about intentional living excellence in your domain excellence in your domain here look at me quick question what's your reputation at work just a question if you if you're not working right now or you don't work what's your reputation with those that you spend the most time with but like i'm that that's not a like an ethereal spiritual question it's like seriously like what's your reputation here's what paul building on what we just read will say in 3 23-24 in the book of colossians whatever you do work heartily you need to do some work on that word work hard whatever you do work heartily as for the lord and not for men knowing that from the lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you are serving the lord christ like our framework 2021 is to find you a job that gives you meaning and purpose that's nonsense find you a job you're good at you can make money at and let the purpose of the job be to work for christ in the job like here i keep saying this the apologetic bar in 2021 is so low that you should excel at it right don't be a jerk don't fall in with the group that's complaining about stuff all the time right like i'm not asking you to learn presuppositional apologetics gosh 20 years ago we had to know presuppositional apologetics and explain where the dinosaurs came from you just got to not be a jerk and not complain all the time and work hard at work like this is what the past you don't need a job that gives you meaning and purpose your meaning and purpose is behind the job you work the job because of your purpose right you got far too many young men and young women refusing to step in to hard labor and hard work because they're trying to find meaning and purpose it's behind that it's not in that so work and work unto the lord work unto the lord what's your reputation at work you an encourager you a hard worker can they count on you i think you know right i think you know your reputation work i'm i've been at this a while i know some of you are just oblivious but mostly right mostly like what's your reputation how do people see you how do they experience you how do we push back what's darkness how do we establish light how do we reveal the beauty of the gospel well you do it first in the domain in which you've been placed you've been uniquely wired and uniquely placed for such a time as this i keep telling you this is our moment it's a messy one it's a dark one but we got a shot but you'll have to operate with excellence in the domain that god has placed you it's why he placed you there that's number one the second thing hospitality in our homes so so how do we live out the gospel rejoin the cultural mandate rejoin god establishing human flourishing in the world one excellence in our domain second hospitality in our homes now i'm 47 when i think about hospitality my my man goes back to martha stewart pre-jail time for insider trading right is it if you're watching martha i'm sorry it was just there so now now it's probably more uh joanna gaines right and and so if we're not careful hospitality becomes about candles and leaves on the table and not about welcoming the outsider around our table but biblical hospitality is terrifying biblical hospitality is a meal and a blessing to the outsider have you ever thought about how strange it is that for a man to be an elder in a local church hospitality is on the list like the other ones kind of makes sense when you got to manage your household well you got to have a good reputation with outsiders you can't be an early convert who's arrogant you can't right but hospitality ain't talking about setting the table guys anytime i'm getting those pumpkins out early he's saying you have to open your home your dinner table to even those who disagree with you not to to just be a space that invites them and this is such a great quote dustin willis and barton brandon clements wrote a book called the simplest way to change the world listen to this quote let's use our homes to be micro representations of that final banquet table places where believers gather around the food and drink god has graciously provided celebrating that god has brought us to himself and opened that sacred space to all who are far from him i love this sentence let's become relentlessly warm and welcoming because we've been relentlessly welcomed in christ let us become relentlessly warm and welcoming again i'm not asking you to add a dinner i'm asking you to add a chair you want to push back what's dark in the world you do it around good food and good drink you do it by working hard and being an encourager and and being the kind of person at work that people would look at and go something something's different there he won't get sucked into constantly complaining about everything he won't get so i've never heard him say a negative word her say a negative word about this or that that stuff becomes a profound apologetic in a day of outrage three seek the welfare of the city jeremiah 29 verse 7 people of god are in exile um they're they're actually trying to absorb them outright pull from them their roots pull from them their worship of god and rather than withdrawing the prophet says but seek the welfare of the city where i have sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare so so that you and i i'm not i'm not thinking any bigger if you're watching online you put your town your city your whatever in there i'm not thinking any further than our immediate area what does it look like to seek the welfare of our city in in one sense every october we prayer walk our neighborhoods and we just bless the houses on our street that's seeking the welfare of our city if you guys didn't know this our staff here works with the police departments in this area we are chaplains for them if something brutal happens we go with them and then we walk with the officer afterwards that's one of the ways we seek the welfare of our city i want to encourage you this way you should join every pta board you should run for school board you should get on town council somehow we've been taught that that stuff's off limits for christians and a very vocal minority is hijacking quite a bit while we're nervous about getting involved in the welfare of our city i'm not saying that you're coming uh to the the town hall meeting with you know a series of bible verses where you're ready to christianize the entire no you're just bringing yourself and you're a lover of jesus and you've been in that space with the gifts and abilities that god has given you in that space really is is a way of holding back the the darkness around us like i'm we have been convinced that if we will just say the truth nicely with men the right amount of compassion in our voice and that everybody's going to go you know what you're right like jesus said they hated me and they're going to hate you and so the withdrawal that occurs when we refuse to seek the welfare of the city gives over the city to those who ultimately are not seeking her welfare or maybe by the grace of god they're what the new testament calls a man or woman of peace who is seeking the welfare of the city so i'm saying get involved however you can wherever you are again i'm not trying to add anything this is as you go seek the welfare of the city i just think we should be involved in this community we should love this community we should love our schools we should love our teachers we should love our mayors we should be ca we should care about who's getting elected where and what that means we should not pull out hard from all of those things i don't know where we got it it's absurd you being involved isn't you believing that america is greater than the kingdom of god you getting involved is you understanding that the kingdom of god should shape and ultimately give space in the kingdoms of this earth [Applause] so that i probably need to teach more on that uh but that's all i've got for today now let me put a banner over all of these three things right the banner over all three of these things and if you're not a christian i just want to be really honest with you you ready i'm just gonna because you're like what is he talking what's he want to do i just want cards on the table i want you to love jesus and become a follower i want you so don't if a lost friend invited you you know what they want they want you to hear the good news and and love jesus and see that no matter what your past is whatever your struggle is presently god loves you and he'll ransom you out of that and that's available to you so i'm not i'm not trying to bait and switch i do want you to be converted i do want you to follow jesus i do want our society and our country to look more and more and more christian and less and less and less secular i do want it i'm not i'm here that's what i believe that's what the person who invited you wants you to leave so as we are faithfully working hard in our domain our hope is to share the gospel with those who are far from it why because we have good news listen if you're not a christian how cruel would we be if we believe what we believe and didn't share with you didn't want that for you right if we're saying man god has made known to us the path of life but i'm not going to tell you about it right like how cruel you know the the reason why in all honesty the reason why i want to seek the welfare of the city be because i think that how god's revealed himself to us in scripture in the person and work of jesus christ leads to human flourishing and leads ultimately to what's best for the family for women for children and for men for the economy for the it is remember all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him so what happens when you submit to the authority of the one who designed it all you ever have to call a subject matter expert because you're out of your depth some of you are so handy that's never happened to you that that is my life whole story of life i'm not preaching i'm calling somebody to fix something right yeah so the one who created it all is saying like this and to come under that doesn't rob us from life but leads us into it i believe that with my guts i think history testifies to that uh i think we're reaping our secular moment all around us right now and the madness that we find ourselves in and yet everybody seems to be blind to the fact that that's what's happening okay evangelism in all of those spheres i am constantly looking for a surface conversation that leads to a serious conversation that leads to a spiritual conversation it's the entire framework of how i'm thinking about life i go to the same places for lunch i work out at the same place in the same class most of the time i go all of that is intentional living for me to know people know their names pray for them surface to serious to spiritual that's what i'm after and so if man if you're you're a barista you keep seeing me you a waiter waitress you keep seeing me you got to know man i'm praying every time i'm looking for your section i'm praying for your soul and i'm hoping that we can take that conversation from surface so what are you doing are you in school you just to something more serious oh okay that's going on let me pray for you to spiritual how how have you experienced right i want to do that in all the domains now here's here's where i feel like we have a talk and i i can feel the weight on me in light of what i'm talking about today i think we have to talk about the heartbeat bill let me let me frame it i have been a bit mortified at how christians have embraced some of the propaganda against the heartbeat bill i i'm gonna just you just stay with me please we are a society that has lost our capacity for reason here's what i mean by reason i'm not talking about think better i'm saying that there's literally something called reason and rules to reason that help us navigate complex gut-wrenching heartbreaking stuff did you know that like in in the framework of western civilization reason has been the thing that has anchored us so that we might see complex issues in a way that that's rooted in reality where we don't get tossed all about by madness and the propaganda machine against what's going on right now is an overdrive and i'm telling you most of it is not true so here's what i mean by first principles here's first principle according to orthodox christian faith all the way back it is never okay to murder a baby period no wait wait no wait so what the the bait and switch right now is let's get rid of that first principle i mean i had like five people christians said me i'm pro-life i'm pro-cynthia's life who this is her situation anybody see this on facebook i'm pro this person's life here's her situation here and i'm like gosh that's awful like my heart breaks for that but the answer according to first principles can't be well then kill the baby that can't be the answer ever that's never been the church's answer the church's answers let us come alongside of you and love you and walk with you and help you in any way we can with our money with our houses with our homes with our resources we are for you right and the the church moves towards that we've never shrunk back from that and i'm telling you the game that's being played right now it reminds me of some demonic old testament nonsensical madness there was a deity called moloch that demanded the sacrifice of children in the return for comfort and and blessing and dad gumming if our country's not worshipping at that altar by eight weeks baby has a heartbeat has its own dna its own blood type brain waves recoils from pain you tell me when it's okay to kill that baby it's not we have lost our minds like even now i know some of your ideas how do you say that you're a man i it doesn't matter what i could be a cat this is true this man hey and by the way the man who said it was okay were seven men twelve men so what's our response our response continues to be what it's always been there are over 160 advocacy and care centers for women across the state of texas there are 18 abortion clinics you tell me who's really for the woman 160 we've got free diapers we've got money we've got homes we've got training we're committed to you 160 something of them 18 abortion clinics tell me who's anti-woman gosh if you study christianity get tom holland's book domain he's not even a christian and he's going to write about the effects of christianity across the ages not even a christian and he can't get away from the fact that hospitals orphanages and the consistent practice across the ancient world of killing unwanted babies was all pushed to the margin by the christian church spare me anti-women there's never been a religion that's elevated women like the christian faith has so our role and i know gosh i know some of you aren't believers and i sound like a madman right now listen i love you this is crazy we house in this church a ministry called young lives it is a ministry to teen moms and their i believe the phrase is baby daddies we walk with those little we those young bucks we walk with those ladies we have a store filled with free clothes and diapers and strollers and and it's and you can get on my face with that we're pro we're just pro birth you know all of life absolutely we're all of life that's a lie guys explain to me 18 verses 160 if all the church is worried about is the unborn now we care cradle to the grave creator of the grave it's what marks us so here's what i want to lay before you in light of this moment one if you're in here and you're a woman that's had an abortion you're a man who's paid for it or pressured somebody to do it you have not outside the grace of god he loves you he pulls from the edges of darkness those who will be his brightest lights we have dozens of women here who have that testimony some that are even on staff god's not done with you you see here you had an outside cross of christ you haven't pushed past his mercy and grace you should just hear what i'm saying because he loves you he sees you he knows exactly the brokenness you felt in that moment the alone that you might have felt in that moment the i have no other option that you might have felt in the moment he loves you hear what i'm saying through the filter of the gospel of jesus christ you have not outside his grace you have not outside his love or his mercy he is for you not against you and you want help navigating all of that we're here we have men and women here men for the men women for the women we'd love to just walk with you in this here's how i would encourage you regardless of what you feel about the heartbeat law by the way it's so orwellian i don't know if you're noticing this nobody wants to they don't want to use the word heartbeat i've counted four other words that they're using to not use the word heartbeat why what's overwhelming it's the same reason why you can't really find an animation or a video of what actually occurs in an abortion because if you could actually see it you would know why it's so evil you don't think this is orwellian you don't think this is a straight up orwellian young lives is always in need of resources and volunteers i'd encourage you to look to get involved there the human coalition we partnered with them for over a decade cradle to the grave committed to the woman there are their couples families in this church actually bought land and put houses so that they might ultimately walk with women who are pregnant all the way through having the baby and on into the future like get you just gotta you gotta spare me the anti-woman thing it's just absolutely untrue in every metric available so continue church to get in the game look up young lives that will be on our website we might even do a push notification to you of some ways that you could get involved to make sure we're coming alongside of women in very desperate and difficult situations and then keep in mind as the propaganda machine continues to kick up that first principles is can you kill a baby that doesn't make the story behind it less heartbreaking but it helps us navigate complex situations that's terrible is the answer to kill the baby that's heartbreaking should we kill the baby that's how we get rooted in reason based on the imago day and live lives of faithful presence in our day and age i'm going to end with this illustration and i really am i know you're like i think you've already said you're gonna no let me in africa at the very southern portion of the sahara desert 12 nations have come together to build what they call the green wall the green wall is this shared across 12 43 hundred miles across africa from east to west 10 miles deep of trees that have been planted and nurtured to stop the spread of the sahara desert pushing southward overcoming fertile land and communities when jesus says you are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world he intends for us to be a kind of green wall that as we work in our domains as we live in our neighborhoods as we play our sports as we live our lives we stop slow down the erosion of the lifelessness that is life outside of christ i want us to be a church that embraces these things like i know this is the kind of sermon that creates a little space but i don't want to manage a big church i want to cause trouble for the enemy and i want you to come with me as we do it let me pray for us father i pray right now in the name of jesus for any sister of mine daughter of yours brother of mine son of yours who've been directly touched by abortion in particular i just pray oh man some ladies are carrying a secret that's ancient i just pray you free them from it the shame and guilt thank you that you're not done with them i ask that you give us a vision for what it looks like to live faithfully in the world that we find ourselves in we might push back what's dark establish what's light live as ambassadors i thank you that when all said and done you will reconcile all things unto yourself we bless you for your beautiful name i pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

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Length: 39min 17sec (2357 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021