Matt Chandler - Unearthed: His Workmanship

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Ephesians 2. We just read verses 8 and 9, but I am going to point you back to all ten verses, or the first ten verses, of this chapter as we get started. I want to share a bit about what I was thinking when we began to consider preaching at the Village Church in 2021. We started with our normal four-week Epiphany series in January; we do the same thing every year. From there, we took 12 weeks on the book of Revelation. I wanted to preach Revelation to instill in you courage, conviction, and a refusal to shrink back as the world seems to be losing its mind. I wanted to call you into the fray and stir up in you a kind of fearlessness based on the sovereignty of God and the power of Jesus Christ. That’s why we focused on Revelation. It wasn’t because I watched the news and thought, «That’s a horseman; that’s the horse of the apocalypse.» No, I told you they’ve been here; they’re here right now. That’s why I wanted to do that.

This year, there have been more stand-alone sermons, each one purposefully crafted as mortar and brick 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. We just completed this Gospel Primer because I want you to understand the gospel—what it is and what it’s not—and then I want you to live out of it. Here’s my hope: if you were to pull me aside, see me out and about, and ask me what my bottom line is, I would say I’m trying to unleash you on the world in such a way that the principalities and powers and this present darkness tremble. That’s what I’m after.

This brings us into this series, which we’ve titled «Unearthed.» I know some of you aren’t quite sure how you fit into this. You hear me discussing these things, and it stirs something in you, but you may not know what to do next. «Unearthed» is meant to come alongside you and say, «Let’s think this way, let’s discover these things, and then let’s get after it.» That’s my hope. If at any point over the next seven or eight weeks you start feeling lost, just remember that’s what we’re doing. I have a deep desire that the principalities and powers of this present darkness, by the way, if that freaks you out, I’m just quoting Ephesians to you; those aren’t my words. I want them to say what we see in the book of Acts when the demon speaks to the seven sons of Sceva and says, «I know Jesus and I’ve heard of Paul, but who are you?» I don’t want anyone in this room to receive the «but who are you?» treatment. I want each of you to understand who and what you are so well that principalities and powers would say, «I know Jesus and I’ve heard of them"—you insert your name there. I want that for you.

Maybe, however, you feel a bit stuck. You might think you’re a spectator while I’m the performer rather than realizing you have a call on your life, a destiny that God has given you, and what it might look like for you to step into that and live it well. When we think about the «who» and the «what,» the Bible will unpack it in three different levels.

Here’s the first level: you are a human being. You have been made in the image of God, and you are distinct from the rest of creation. I’m looking around, and that’s universal. I don’t think I need to preach much about that today. I see a lot of Imago Dei happening in here, right? Unless Bootsie is in your purse, I’m just looking around, and it’s just us—human beings made in the image of God, distinct among the rest of creation. In this eight-week-long series, I won’t talk much about the Imago Dei, as we discuss this a lot when we talk about life, race, and the gospel implications for how we live our lives. We always appeal to this: every human being, everywhere, is equal in terms of dignity, value, and respect. This is the foundation for how we, as Christians, should view almost all the issues that rage in our day.

That’s the first level. The second level is what I’ll call your general identity. That’s the language I’m going to use: general identity. Your general identity is given to you by God, and it has everything to do with what you do with Jesus. Your general identity—everyone in this room has one—is 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…