Matt Chandler - Let the Nations Be Glad

Well, good morning! How are you? It’s good to see you. Happy Mother’s Day! Just wait for a second—no, I don’t know why you would clap. Oh, for your moms! We’ll get to that; we’re going to honor them in something special here in a moment. Hey, uh, good morning! If you are a guest with us today, let me introduce myself. Uh, my name is Matt Chandler; I’m the lead pastor of teaching here at the Village, and I’m glad that you’ve decided to join us, either here in the room or online at home. If, at some point in the next hour—that’s what you can expect, an hour and ten minutes—God stirs up your heart and you want to know more about our family of faith, there are a couple of ways that you can approach that. One, you can text «belong» to 56549; we can get to know each other digitally. Or, you can scan that QR code in the seat back in front of you, and that’ll take you to the welcome part of our website where you can learn more about our church. Or, and this is always my preference, at the end of the service today, you can head outside these doors to my left, your right, and then take an immediate left into the room we call Connection Central. There are men and women who can answer any questions you might have about our family of faith. Again, we’re just glad that you’re with us today.

I don’t know if you’ve felt the weather, but summer’s here, and that’s a little early. If you’re from California, good luck—you’re probably not going to make it, but if you do, you’ll be a true part of the family. As summer kicks in, that means many ministries will start to shut down and take a natural break in their rhythms. However, student ministry goes in the opposite direction, so we have both of our camps for middle school and high school lined up for this summer. Let me talk about middle school camp first. Middle school camp is from June 26th to the 30th, and we’re driving all the way down to Huntsville, Texas, which is prettier than it sounds—giant pine trees, a little swampy—but it should be a blast. Our high school camp is around the same time, except we’re taking our high school kids to Estes Park, Colorado, which is always good to escape Texas and go to Colorado in the summer. The dates for that are June 26th through July 1st.

Now, let’s make some eye contact real quick. I know that all of our kids are going to be professional athletes—they’re going to be pro soccer players, pro baseball players, pro football players—and they are going to make us proud. But in the unlikely event that they don’t, it might be a good idea to invest in their spiritual formation. I get it; I’ve got kids who are actively involved in athletics, and I’m the kind of person who’s all in. Yet, there’s a rhythm in the Bible of withdrawing from the normal hustle and bustle for a set period of time to marvel at the goodness of God, which replenishes the soul and reminds us of ultimate reality. I’m asking you as parents not to trade that for soccer camp. Please listen; I’m telling you it’s a bad trade. So just consider, as we think about these opportunities to pull our kids out of the normal grind and rhythm of life and get them to focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ on their behalf, that this is a really good investment to make. It’ll take them farther than the perfect curveball. We good? All right, I think I upset somebody—it’s fine.

That’s what I mean; I’m here now. Moms, hey guys, thank you! On behalf of this church, thank you! You have done a thousand things that no one has ever seen—God knows it, and no one else might ever know it. Through your sacrifice, your service, and the vision you have for your family, you have shaped and formed your homes in ways that, honestly, we just won’t know about until all these things have been accounted for. So, thank you; it’s not lost on me, and it’s not lost on us how integral you are to human flourishing. Thank you for all the things that have never been seen—those things for which no one will ever say thank you. Thank you for those moments when you were out of gas, and you dug a little deeper to do it, and for the times you ran out of gas and lost your mind. Thank you; you’re human. That’s all there is—humans. Be nicer to yourselves!

The second thing I know is that for some of you, today is a harder day. I’ve got a dear friend in the last service whose mom passed away two days ago, so this day is a little harder for him. I know there are those of you who really want to be mothers, and it just hasn’t happened the way you desired. I always like to point out that Eve was called the mother of all living things before she ever had a child. So, to our mothers and to our spiritual mothers here, thank you for what you do, for how you go about it, and for how you’ve turned our homes and this…