Matt Chandler - Unearthed: Hidden Value

You might need to turn to that in your Bibles if you got caught up just listening and staring at Holly and felt ignorant, wishing you had studied more. You can just open up your English Bible, and we’ll look at that here and there as I dive in. I want to be careful with my own heart here; we’ve known Holly for a long time. Holly grew apart, became an atheist, and an artist who had a hard time fitting in. She found herself as a single mom working at Starbucks, trying to survive while also working at a strip club, doing the makeup for the women in the club. It was while she was working at that Starbucks over in Plano that some Christians began to be really kind to her, asking about her life, inviting her in, encouraging her, and ultimately sharing the gospel from a place where she felt loved and seen by them.

Now, here’s what’s crazy: sometimes I feel sorry for the devil. I mean, I don’t really—I’m eager for his eternal destruction—but here’s this jaded, broken girl built by God to create art, who is drawn to the Italian Renaissance, which is mostly gospel stuff, right? Have you ever looked at Italian paintings from the Renaissance? They depict Jesus on the cross, Jesus resurrected, Jesus’s ascension, Jesus with his disciples, Jesus with his mother. She loved it so much that she went to school as an angry, artistic atheist to learn Italian. Poor devil! Now, where she had—this is the stuff we’ve been talking about. I wouldn’t have gone into this long text if I knew Holly was reading, right? This is how God redeems our brokenness and weaponizes it against the enemy meant to destroy us. Don’t you think Holly’s a trophy of God’s grace? He sent everything He could at her—heartbreaking situations, a quirky personality, making it hard to find a place where she belongs. A lot of weird kinds of thoughts; I’m always thinking about the Italian Renaissance. I don’t know if you remember what high school was like—kids who are always thinking about the Italian Renaissance don’t find neat clean guidelines for where they fit. But what’s God doing? We’ve been covering this for six weeks now. What’s God been doing? He’s saying, «Let’s go, Holly, let’s go!»

Here’s the exciting part—she knew the passage was long; she was like, «Oh my gosh, are you serious?» She’s been befriended by an angry atheist guy, and she said to him, «Hey, I need to read this passage from church. Will you help me make sure my interpretation is on point?» So, she literally sent him the passage and said, «Hey, I need you to read through this several times and get it back to me.» You can see that poor guy doesn’t know—poor devil, right? Bless his heart—trying to destroy everybody, and we just keep kicking him in the teeth.

So, if you’re a guest, that was a lot. That’s a lot for your first experience with me. Let me tell you where we are: we’re nearing the end of a series we’ve called «Unearthed.» In this series, we are trying to thread the needle, and it’s not easy, but I think we’re doing okay. We’ve been teaching that everyone has, as a general identity, really three levels. The first is that we are human beings. Everyone in here is a human being, which means everyone in this room is due dignity, value, and respect simply because we are different from the rest of creation—we have been made in the image of God. So, everyone in this room is human. Welcome! That’s the thing we hold most in common at this moment: we’re all human beings.

Now, the second level of identification would be what I’ve called general identity, and that has everything to do with what you do with the person and work of Jesus Christ. What you do with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ will determine your general identity. I think there are only two categories: you will either be in the category of child of God—having been adopted by the blood of Jesus and brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son—or you will be in the category of child of wrath. I don’t want you to get upset with me for using that language; I’m using biblical language to explain God’s response to you saying, «I don’t need God. I’m fine on my own. I’ll do it my own way.» When you do that, here’s what Romans 1 says: God actually lets you do it. The biblical phrase is that He turns us over to do what ought not be done. So, if you’re one of those in this room, you are either a child of God or a child of wrath, and where you land has everything to do with what you’ve done with the person and work of Jesus. Do you think you’re a better god than God is, despite the fact that you’re very human?