Matt Chandler - What We'll Face

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and land on that text because there’s a lot there. Now, I got past the scary passage last week, but this is still pretty complex, right? I wish I had a little bit more time. Sam, who just read that to you, has a beautiful background, but part of that background included him driving past our church and praying against it. So, literally, if you want to know why he would do that and the irony of him reading this passage on this day, you can ask him. That brother used to drive past our church and say, «God, would you hinder their influence? Would you hinder their reach into this community?» Then, the Lord kind of grabbed hold of his heart, and now he’s on staff. I kind of just giggled a little bit about how the Lord works, and that even when we might be aggressively against Him, the Lord might do a work that creates clarity. I just always love when the Lord flexes like that.

We have a lot to do, but I want to probably, once or twice a year, pause for a second and remind you of what we’re trying to do here. Right? Like, here we are. We’ve gathered. It’s kind of a weird deal. We gathered; we just sang. That doesn’t really happen a lot in other places, and so we’ve come. What are we actually up to? What I want to continually lay in front of you is that the reason we preach the way we preach, teach the way we teach, and press the way we press is that what I am hungry for, and what I want to spend my life on, is you zealously in love with the God of the Bible and passionately living it out beyond these walls.

So, what I’ve tried to say to you over and over again is that I want you to be a problem for the enemy. I am not spending my life so you can be good moral people—how boring is that? No, I want you to be a problem. Like, the devil and the enemy go, «Oh, crud! One of them is in this neighborhood! Oh dang, one of them is at this workplace! Oh crud, they just joined this gym! That means our stronghold, our stranglehold, is going to lose its grip because they pray, they fast, they hustle, and they love Jesus.» That’s how I’m trying to spend my life.

You’re never going to find me saying, «Hey, morally do more of this, morally do more of that.» I want you to be so captivated by Jesus and His glory that it forms and shapes you to look more like Him over time. That’s what I’m trying to do in this room. I’m trying to fill you with courage, provoke you to action, and remind you that behind everything is Jesus ruling and reigning; that you and I are not only secure but called into the great drama of the universe—pushing back darkness and establishing light. You’re not spectators; that’s not what this is. If all you do is like how I talk and enjoy our music, we have failed you.

Christianity is not what happens within these walls; it’s what happens outside them. We come in here, and we’re just reminded of what we’re caught up in. We’re re-gospelled and reminded of His goodness and grace. So, we preach hard, say difficult things, and call you to holiness and action because what a waste of your beautiful life it would be for you to be a spectator constantly worried about moral betterment rather than really letting yourselves loose on the kingdom of darkness.

There’s this great passage—I do this twice a year, so I’m going to take a little time to do it—where the seven sons of Sceva are casting out demons. They are the sons of a Jewish itinerant exorcist, whatever that is. They attempt to cast out these demons, and the demon speaks. A lot of demons speak out to the seven sons of Sceva, saying, «We know Jesus and we’ve heard of Paul, but who are you?» The thing that always stood out to me about that story in Acts 17 and 18 is that they had heard of Paul. I just love that! Paul was so wreaking havoc on darkness that the demons were like, «Oh yeah, we heard of that guy!»

Listen, I know you probably don’t even see yourself this way, but that’s what I want for you. I want them to go, «Oh dang, I heard of them!» I don’t want it be said of any of you, «Who are they? Yeah, I’ve heard of Jesus, I heard of that, but who’s that?» No, I want you to be a problem. And so, we’re preaching, we’re pushing, we’re trying to organize so that you might be stirred up, that you might be equipped, and that you might be released in this whole area of North Texas to do gospel goodness. That’s what’s in our hearts, and that’s going to happen in this room every week. You’re not going to get a lot of, «Come here and let me hug you, ” although I do want to shower you with grace over and over again. I want to remind you of the finished work of Jesus Christ.