The Kingdom Remade

I pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing wanna lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things with the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] the kingdom of God is as multifaceted and mysterious as our Creator a kingdom we only see now through a glass darkly though we can't picture it fully God's kingdom is the story told in Scripture from the garden to the city and in the middle of the story God chose to reveal his kingdom in a new way the gospel is not only Jesus coming and dying to save us from our sins it's also the story of God establishing his dwelling Dominion and dynasty in the world we live as both citizens and strangers prisoners of hope in this shadow kingdom all while knowing it's not our true home that something better is coming that God's perfect Kingdom is coming [Music] well good evening it's good to see you if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those we're gonna be in Revelation chapter 21 hard to believe we're almost done with our series on the kingdom in fact there's this weekend and next weekend and then our 12-week series on the kingdom will come to an end and so if you've just joined us let me let me kind of recap quickly so you can kind of understand where we're going in in week one and I'm not gonna walk through the whole series don't no need to panic and week one we just kind of set up how to think rightly about the kingdom we said that Genesis 1 through 3 was a picture of the plotline of the kingdom of God namely the god the creator created a space in which his dwelling was present and unfettered and unhindered and that our souls were designed for him and he was present in the way our souls were designed for him to be present and we talked about the fact that God given us Dominion he had asked us giving us the cultural mandate fill the earth and subdue it and the promise was we were his people and he was our God and there that the Bible said that the man and the woman were naked and unashamed so right relationship with God right relationship with one another right relationship with creation and in this kingdom one law I mean that's that's not complex we've got more rules than that in my house Ryan God had won just everything you can have just don't touch this one alright leave this one alone everything else is yours and and yet Satan begins to tempt and twist and Adam and Eve fall and the fall wreaks havoc on the kingdom of God we saw the kingdom established then we saw the kingdom fall and then we get this promise woven throughout the scriptures that God is gonna remake the kingdom re-establish his kingdom and so we've shown these last 10 weeks this is week 11 of really the complexities of the kingdom of God right the kingdom of God is here but it's also there it is now but it's also there it is inside of us and it is outside of us and so over the last 10 weeks we've kind of dove into the complexities of this namely what it means to be a part of the kingdom and then what it means to be citizens of the kingdom and then just quickly how gifted is Jamin Roller I mean that that kid sheesh and I can call him kid I think he's like 26 or something it's not true he just looks like he's 26 but just an incredibly gifted preacher and teacher I was blood just got a chance to to listen quickly to his message last week I just found myself getting pumped up by him I was like go get him and so I meant how gracious is God to our church that so many of our young men and women here on staff are just gifted teachers and preachers Jamin being yet another example of that and and so what I want to look at tonight is not so much the aspects of the kingdom that are here and now and in US but I want us to look at the kingdom that will be here soon and if Jesus said it soon then I'm allowed to say it soon all right so what I want to do is I want to talk about Christian hope now that's what I want to talk about I want to kind of lift up our eyes to what's coming and I want to frame that around hope here's why where you place your hope is imperative to your experience of joy where you place your hope is directly tied to joy because if you put your ultimate hopes on things that cannot hold the weight of those hopes you will more than likely be forced into anxiety and anger and will more than likely respond to anxiety and anger with control and manipulation which by the way is not good for relationships right I don't think I need to flush that out anymore right anxiety and anger leading to control and manipulation is not the recipe for a good life for deep relationships for soul-satisfying experiences instead it's the cause of conflict heartbreak and destruction so if you place your hope and things that cannot bear the weight of them the likelihood that your life is gonna be marked by anxiety and anger leading to control and manipulation it's just really really high and so I'm not I want to try to practice keeping my sermon to 38 to 40 minutes because that's gonna be the new reality when we roll into Sunday mornings only and so let me just kind of lay this for you three examples of that I think the three places where we have a tendency to kind of really put our hopes that is always gonna lead to anxiety and anger and control and manipulation that the first is marriage now if you're a single person you have a tendency to go off I could just get married if I could just find that spouse and you're putting a lot of Hope on this person that's gonna come in and Jerry Maguire your life right they're gonna complete you just there's that perfect one that's gonna make everything better look at me no they're not they're gonna make everything more difficult and a lot of things much harder don't agree too passionately married folk all right like like there's a real beautiful gift there but if you put your hope in that one if you're single and you put your hope there you will paralyze yourself today and God is not waiting for you to have a spouse to call you into something significant you have got to fight against that lie especially in a church that's filled with young marrieds don't you dare wait to step into the significance that God has called you into by waiting for some other person to come in and complete you and then if you're married and you bet your life on marriage being the thing that started helping you make sense of your existence you have already began to feel the weight of disappointment leading to anxiety and anger leading to control and manipulation right this is a place we get this wrong now marriage is a good gift of God the Bible says it is he who finds a wife finds what is good now I will also say that Jesus and the Apostle Paul would later add that there's also a calling to signal singleness that is a beautiful call and one that is actually greater than the call to be married but who's given their whole life over to is undivided like like you know like that's Jesus and Paul regular well you're kind of a divided person what do you mean I'm gonna fight well you've got a spouse since you gotta take care of that spouse a single person isn't like that single person this is all in on Jesus right and so this is a place that we can put a lot of hope and it's misplaced hope I'm just telling you nine times out of ten conflict in marriage is due to unmet expectations because those expectations were unrealistic and maybe that's our fault for how we talk about marriage maybe that's right but marriage can be difficult there's just a lot of sinners in the house but it can also be really really beautiful so it's just rightly placed hope not ultimate hope right the second place we have a tendency to put a lot of hope is in our kids right like oh our kids like we're gonna be able to do it right we're gonna be able to erase the mistakes of our parents we're gonna write but yet this is out of your control too and kids make terrible gods they're like wild and even the ones that are rule followers are just rebelling a different kind of way all right if you got that kid that came out of the womb you know reading Hamlet smoking a pipe and his response to everything is yes ma'am no sir yes sir all right that's just another kind of rebellion it's another guy so this is another place that we can say it again if you're struggling with infertility if I just had a kid then it's a good ride desire it's just a terrible ultimate hope all right third place work I've got to hurry up if I'm gonna work right right tell me that we don't put our hope for significance and meaning into work if I could just get to this level of success if I could just get to this level of the organization if I could just get into this inner circle if I could just reach this tax bracket if I could just write like CS Lewis's whole inner circle argument is so profoundly true like if I could just be seen as a success now remember what we said thinking that operating like that and by the way most of us actually tend to operate by putting thinking our hopes are in these places we just move so fast that we can't hardly realize that we're doing it right we're so busy we can't breathe long enough to go oh my gosh this is why I'm so frustrated in my America this is why I'm so frustrated in my singleness this is why I'm so frustrated at work so frustrated at home because you're placing hope on things that can't bear the weight of your hopes so again the Christian believes all these things are beautiful gifts of God they're just not where our ultimate hope is so like the Christian would affirm that all of these things are good gifts from a good father but they are not where we place our ultimate hopes our ultimate hope is in the kingdom here and the kingdom there now when I'm talking about the kingdom there I am NOT simply talking about a disembodied heaven where you and I float around from cloud to cloud singing in jesus's day and age the question what must I do to inherit eternal life would not have been interpreted how do I get to heaven that have been a foreign concept they are asking when you read in the New Testament questions about the future it's always within the framework of the coming age like how do I get into the coming age not how do I get to heaven but in the age to come how do I get there how do I get to that place where the world has been liberated from sin and death and the enemies of God how do I get there and and God help us modern evangelicals have zero concept for the most part of what the Bible talks about when it comes to eschatology eschatology is just the things that are coming the future Kingdom right like for us even our testimony of the gospel has everything to do with personal conversion and not a remade heaven and earth this is just how we describe the gospel that God has saved me and he has saved me and then I'm gonna stand in front of him and he's either going to affirm my salvation in Christ and give me heaven or he's going to deny my salvation in Christ and send me to hell and that's the good news of the gospel won't you come to heaven which is great except it's so reductionistic as not how the Bible talks about your future or my future now sure is there a heaven absolutely is there this period of time in which we might be disembodied spirits the presence of God yes but when all said and done is that your future in mine no no no it's not let's look at this together let's start in Revelation 21 1 through 7 let me give you my outline a remade cosmos remade bodies remade reality there you go let's look at this revelation 21:1 will go through 7 I see you Fanning yourself I don't know can is the air on it needs to be on lower so if anybody can do that I know some of you some of our staff guys have it on their app I don't but let me do this revelation 21 starting in verse 1 then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with a man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as their God and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain any more for the former things have passed away and he who was seated on the throne said behold I am making all things new also he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true and he said to me it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment and the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son now what you're seeing in this text is the cosmos earth heaven the expanse of the universe REME made as the kingdom in its fullness now what we see in this picture is a far cry from where we find ourselves now I am fresh back from belgrade serbia and i'm more encouraged than ever as to ask how the gospel is spreading across the world i mean i'll talk more about that next week no time now but the world that you and i live in doesn't look anything like this the cosmos that we are in now is a genesis three cosmos it is broken and busted there's plenty of morning there's a lot of death there's a ton of crime there's a lot of anxiety there's a lot of loss it's the world in which we inhabit and it's a world that the bible is honest about when it comes to our experience in it in fact the Apostle Paul would try to help us understand this in Romans 8 when he talks about creation this way not not you and I but the created order for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption or even the Greek word there decay and obtained the freedom of the glory of the children of God for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now and not only creation but we ourselves listen it's not until verse 23 that humankind shows up this talking about the creative order this talking about mountains and trees and wolves and whales and it's not my creation that it's subjected to futility that it's broken that it's groaning like the Apostle Paul is saying look the world as it is is not the way it was designed to be nor what it ultimately will be and somehow creation knows it and it groans it aches it wants to be set free and it knows it's freedom is wrapped up in the children of God and so it watches the children of God with eager expectation that it's one day going to be set free and this is what a gust and men when looking out at creation he said if these are the beauties afforded to sinful men what does God have in store for those who love him what's on Agustin's hearts is this beauty that I see it's not what it was meant to be and it's not what it will be and if it's that beautiful now how stunning is God and so man I don't know how you've been able to travel I don't know what parts of the world you've been able to see I don't know if you've been to those parts of the world that are so beautiful your soul aches and Agustin's gone broken and paul is saying it's groaning it's not what it was and it's not what it's going to be so no matter how beautiful it is right now it's not what it was and it's not what it's going to be it's wherever you see Beauty need to be reminded every time that Sun sets and then you see the sky just pink and red and stunning and you feel that little ache and you just remember that's not what it was and that's not what it's going to be like how beautiful how mighty how incredible is God that the most stunning beauties of this present age actually broken in the fall and and yet this is not the picture of what is to come for us and it's not just in Revelation that we see this we hear prophesied about because remember that the promise of the kingdom is through the whole bottle the kingdom mean remade it's not just in Revelation we don't have to go all the way to Revelation to find these promises God has since the fall been encouraging his people that the kingdom will be be remade that the fullness of the kingdom will be known that it is here but it's also coming and so the prophet Isaiah explains it this way and Isaiah 11:6 2:9 the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with a young goat and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together so I loved that he threw the fatted calf in there it's just like the the lion is going to dwell with the fajita and they will dine together the fajita will not be afraid for his life right like why you got to throw the fatted calf in there we've already got a fat you know we better got a calf there but then he's he's going overboard to go to know the the most kind of delicious looking temptation is right there and the lion will not be interested even in the fatted calf why because it will be as it was meant to be it will be as it was meant to be the kingdom remade let me keep reading the cow and the bear shall graze their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the Ox the nursing child shall play over the hole of the Cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adders den they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Seas see what we've got coming this is what's coming it's not disembodied it's not in the clouds it's not some ethereal spiritual experience it's children on the ground playing in the dirt with the Cobras and the Cobras don't have their mouths glued shut they're there but they don't strike this is what was meant to be this is what is coming when all things are remade this is what Christ's blood has purchased Thomas Roush says it like this the coming of God's kingdom in its fullness the triumph of God's justice that would vindicate all those who suffered injustice or persecution the binding up of their wounds the wiping away of their tears from their eyes the raising them to life eternal with Christ all of creation will join in this celebration participating in Christ's victory over sin and death there will be a new heaven and a new earth set free from corruption and slavery subject finally to God who would be all in all to remade cosmos it's not you playing a harp with wings it's all things remade and and this this that's the remade cosmos this little body that you're wearing right now totally inadequate you will be underdressed for this event in what you're wearing so we've got to do something about that right so the good news is that this is not what you will be wearing for this affair because this this has a different purpose so this is first Corinthians 15 35 through 44 that this is a remade body for this remade cosmos but someone will ask how are the dead raised with what kind of body do they come you foolish person I'm just gonna be on that like Paul's like I don't know if he's having a tough day or what this is this is like a I have this question okay what does the resurrected body look like are we in our prime or do we look completely different like is it all said our like when we are resurrected or are we resurrected like as a I got 24 year old are we resurrected as a 40 year like what are we resurrected I'm like what kind of body actually is this those are good questions and Paul's response to the question is a you foolish person whatever Paul what you sow does not come to life unless it dies and what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel perhaps of wheat or some other grain but God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh is the same but there is one kind for humans another for animals another for birds and another for fish I think Lewis would use this argument to even talk about how our animals will be in heaven I disagree but that's another sermon for another day there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earth is of another there is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the stars four stars differ from star in glory so it is with a resurrection of the Dead what is sown is perishable what is raised is imperishable it is sown and dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness and it is raised in power it is sown a natural body and it has raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body then I'm gonna go down to verse 50 I tell you this brother's flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality and when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the same that is written death is swallowed up in victory Oh death where is your victory Oh death where is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain now I don't want to begrudge this point I just want to make a couple of points one that this body that we have right now this physical body it is perishable and it's a seed that must go in the ground we have been built for a fallen world at this point right like my skin needs to keep out viruses and bad bacterias my liver needs to filter my blood I've got all sorts of defense mechanisms for a fallen world I've got adrenaline for fight or flight I've got all sorts of responses that are built to keep me alive in a fallen world that I will not need in glory in fact one of the things that Agustin talks about in his book City of God if you wonder why I'm always quoting Agustin he's my ancient friend I think everybody should have one so I just picked a Gustin I just read everything he ever wrote anything written about him Peter Browns biography probably the most dense difficult book I think I've read and and yet he's just become ancient buddy and so oftentimes go yeah Gus and then we had that conversation that day over coffee and Agustin was talking about this very idea that so much of our physical body right now is meant to keep us alive in a Genesis 3 world and the the kingdom to come the new heavens and new earth we will not need the energy used to defend ourselves there because that energy will be given over to praise for God and love for God and so this thing needs to go on the ground because this thing is perishable and you don't give us a lot of details but he says what will be raised is imperishable right so no Crick's in the neck and glory right no bad knees no bad backs in glory it's imperishable right I mean that that's just yes please the older I get yes please if you're in your 20s in here and perfectly healthy you're like that's not that big of a deal alright I started my time around yeah we'll talk to you in a bit and and then we see here that this body is earthly it's not heavenly and and when this happens when we have our imperishable bodies death will be mocked right I mean how good of a day will that be where O death is your victory where is your sting you got nothing what do you take from us sin death nothing will be wearing imperishable bodies what do they look like I'm not sure I know you can look at Jesus's resurrected body and you can touch it and it eats food and many can just appear places which I'm kind of excited about all this because that's not conjecture about what we get to do with that is conjecture here's what I know about glory whatever you're imagining it's better but if you're like oh I hope we can fly there alright well whatever's there is better than that right man I hope we can miss it well okay whatever whatever is in your imagination just know the Lord's smiling at he thinks that's cute and like a kid coloring something you know it's great there's something coming for us there and then the last point here is a remade reality again Isaiah points to this in Isaiah 65 I'm just gonna read 17 through 25 but really 64 65 66 we're all kind of this new heaven and new earth that are coming for us well let's look here in verse 17 for behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former thing shall not be remembered or come into mind but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people no more shall I be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress no more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not fill out his days for the young man shall die a hundred years old and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed they shall build houses and inhabit them they shall plant vineyards and shall eat their fruit they shall not build and another inhabit they shall not plant and another eat it for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands they shall not labour in vain or bear children for calamity for they shall be the offspring of the blessing of the Lord and their descendants with them before they call I will answer while they are yet speaking I will here and here it is again the wolf and the lamb shall graze together and the lion shall eat straw like the Ox and the dust shall be the Serpent's food they shall not hurt or destroy and all my holy mountain says the Lord this is a picture of what is to come when the kingdom is visible in its fullness a couple of things that I would highlight here one you've got this promise that the former things will not be remembered or come to mind so I want to do this gonna come over here Bibles over here let me tell you what I think that means nice Oh take this or leave it I think this means not that we won't remember difficult heartbreaking things but rather we will see them as the Lord solvent because there are some things that have been very difficult in my life that I look back on now with great affection and joy knowing what the Lord accomplished in them and there is a ton of mystery there is a ton of heart breaking gut wrenching what in the world are you doing God moments that I think on this day I'll see the same way I look at places that I'm like that was very difficult but I see how the Lord really brought me into his presence through that trial through that suffering through that difficulty so I don't know that for sure but but I just know that if we see it the way God saw it will rejoice in it in a way that's hard to rejoice in it when you're stuck and blind in the middle of trial and loss in this current state we see here that there's no more weeping or distress I love that the word distress is there it means worry or anxiety our God now think about God help us how much of our energy goes into worry and anxiety how much of the joy of today is robbed from us at our fears for tomorrow but but in the kingdom remade there's nothing to be anxious about like there's nothing to be anxious about I got three kids a church I'm pastor and a YV evening I'm worried about stuff always worried about something I'm always having to go ah there's nothing new about that Lord I'm just gonna lay this at your feet Lord just trust you here just work in his life just work in her lives just do this thing God lead us here I want to hear from you here polite like I'm constantly in that wrestle of finding myself worrying finding myself mean anxious and instead having to drag that compulsion into the presence of Jesus but that's that's not even a wrestle that exists when the kingdom's been remade like so what it looks like to be a follower of Christ as you bring that compulsion into the presence of Jesus now in the kingdom remade the kingdom present the wrestle ceases to be in that good news gosh I I don't know how your walk with Jesus is going but my walk with Christ is constantly dragging bad compulsions into his presence and asking for maturation and grace and forgiveness and hope man I thought I'd be farther along than I am 20-something years into following him and it's not an evil thing or a wicked thing to wrestle with compulsions the godly thing is to drag those compulsions into the presence of Christ by the grace of God but here there's not even a restful the compulsions are gone whatever they are you have a compulsion towards anger you have a compulsion towards lust you have a compulsion towards selfishness yeah but whatever it is compulsion towards worry compulsion toward whatever it is it's gone like if you're prone to depression it's just gone you'd have to fight it anymore it's just not there that alone makes me kind of go Maranatha come Lord Jesus right and then he also says that this is important there are real homes and there's real feasting going on again I just want to pound this into your mind it's not ethereal now you're not floating around we've we've got a house is and we're eating legitimate feasting together in the same way that Jesus has resurrected body ate real fish we're embodied creatures in a new heaven and new earth new bodies that don't perish actually living in homes and feasting with one another in the full presence of our Lord and Savior living in and dwelling in his presence in ways right now that if we experience and then lastly I want to point out here that that he says you're gonna work without toil like again this idea that used to me playing a harp and singing something let's just it's silly it's not true this comes from a kind of escapism mentality that has this kind of jettison this world while this one gets exploded into nothing and that's not what the Bible teaches it's just not what it teaches to teaching remade purified and where are we on it in homes working without toil joy life in his presence still don't Dominion remains and dwelling remains while we're in our dynasty this is language we've been using this is the Kingdom remained and so let me just lay this before you the Christian life is one of living towards that with all our heart mind soul and strength so I want to and the Bible calls you and me to live towards this day right I am not living towards the day when I get to retire I'm not living towards the day when I'm an empty nester I'm not living towards the day when whatever you fill in the blank I'm not living towards the day that I've got grandbabies or I am not living towards that day I'm living towards this day and every day I'm closer and so this routes me in a kind of discipleship that I don't lose heart when my compulsions feel like I'll never beat them because I will and you will and it doesn't matter what they are just doesn't matter what they are are you prone to depression one day by the power of Christ you'll stand over that depression and mock it where is your victory now where is your sting this is what's coming for us and we turn our face towards it and we don't forget about it and in fact if you haven't read a pilgrims progress by John Bunyan he just nails down by the way that's the second best-selling book behind the Bible in human history grab that book even if it's a child's version and let it get into your guts men the days can be difficult life can be hard loss is real Genesis 3 world is where we are and yet filled with the Holy Spirit experiencing the kingdom now breaking through and power sustaining us to that day where we'll see this with our eyes our resurrected eyes there'll be no contacts there no LASIK surgery there no need because listen I'm there right now when I read my Bible I've got this little one-inch thing right here and if I go one inch down it's gone if I anyway it's gone I so I it's not gonna be long till I'm having to wear I'm up here in my study already happened so now just know we are closer and this is the Kingdom remade present this isn't a fairy tale this is what you and I should be living towards every aspect of my behavior I want to wrap around this am i loving my wife am i loving my children my living in this space in such a way that shows this is the Kingdom I'm betting on this is where I've placed my hope because this is where I've placed my hope then any difficulty in marriage is put in its right category look at me I'm not talking about abusive marriage if you're being abused I'm not talking to you not saying that you stay there and continue to be emotionally tormented while you to look towards that day where that's not gonna happen anymore I'm telling you come and let us kind of help you as best we can by getting you in a place where that's not your reality right now right and I'm trying to if you battle with lust if you battle with same-sex attraction to fill you with hope right now and say there'll be a day where you stand over it and victory is yours because of Christ if you put your hope anywhere else you're gonna be anxious or angry and that's gonna lead you to control and manipulation and that would rob you of the beauty of the kingdom not just there but here struggling with compulsions hang in there don't hide be known that's one of the things we have fought for tooth and nail in this place is that you would it would you would always feel like an okay place for you to not be okay why because we believe this we believe we're in in Genesis 3 world you struggling with lust yeah of course I mean look at the culture we're in gosh surprising if anybody doesn't it's ok let's come together love one another serve one another pray with one another drag that compulsion in the presence of Jesus Christ struggle with same-sex attraction you've got um gender dysphoria okay we'll come into the light let's wrestle well together while we hold fast one and they're waiting for the kingdom to be remade expecting a breakthrough of the kingdom in the here-and-now haunted by depression paralyzed by anxiety struggling with mental illness a closer and you and I will stand over it by the power of Christ and say hey where's your victory where's your sting I'll end with this where have you placed your hope again I'll say we are moving so fast and we are so busy but the quiet involved and necessary for us to figure out why we're at a today's it will never properly diagnose what's actually going on in us and instead will lash out at those around us may God slow down our heart so I'm gonna preach on this in a couple of weeks I got slowed down our hearts enough to help us realize oh my gosh you know I'm so angry you know I'm controlling and manipulative it's because I've placed my hope here and that's the wrong place to place my hope so I could dial back the expectation on this person or this situation and put that expectation on God and not on this person maybe this relationship stands a chance maybe health could be established in what has been a really toxic thing again I'm not talking about abusive relationships where have you placed your hope if you've put it on something that cannot bear up under the weight of your expectation you only have anxiety and anger and control the manipulation in your future pan Jesus wants so much more for you than that let's pray father thank you for these men and women I'm eager as ever for this to be our reality eager as ever to experience this in the here-and-now as I wait for it to come in its fullness so I pray for my brothers and sisters that have come into this place tonight weary exhausted beaten down and maybe on the precipice of hopelessness pray in this space that you might fan into flame that smoldering wick we might in this moment be reminded that you have not saved us to abandon us that you will sustain us until this day so empower us to keep running you to get back up and keep coming and thank you that your grace is sufficient for the journey the long journey tis as John Bunyan will put it the celestial City strengthen our hands I resolve our hearts by your power by your Holy Spirit strengthen us all the more for the journey it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 8,233

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, The Kingdom Remade, Citizens and Strangers

Id: UHK7YmMKGV4

Length: 43min 20sec (2600 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2018