Matt Chandler – How the Gospel effects “Professional Christians”
Chandler brought the word to the Chapel service for Lifeway employees. He brought a firm warning against gospel inoculation.
“The danger of working with the Gospel is that we handle it, package it, market it and in the end become inoculated to it.” – Matt Chandler
We as people who preach the gospel have to guard against the self-righteous attitude that we can have based our own works. As ministers our sin often isn’t going out and doing drugs it ministering without God’s help. It’s being addicted to the approval of others. If we continue serving our church, our family and our Lord in that mode we will pay a huge price.
“Our hope in Christ will dry up and die under the weight of our own confidence” – Matt Chandler
Our adversary wants to try and get us to make a trade. He wants us to talk about Jesus but never really know him. He wants us to embrace cheap grace a grace without discipleship a grace without misplaced confidence and affection. He wants to rob our faith and steal our joy. Our joy and our hope dry up the moment we place our confidence in the wrong thing. This is such a difficult thing to do. It doesn’t matter how humble you are we constantly are turning to worthless idols that our heart creates rather than worshiping our creator.
“Never trade Jesus for the idea of Jesus” – Matt Chandler
Such a powerful statement because we all default to the idea of Jesus, because we can control the idea of Jesus. Jesus as CS Lewis says “Is not a tame Lion.” This is something God has really been challenging in me. I have been asking myself for the past week or two this question. “When is the last time I put myself in a place that if God didn’t come through for me I’ld be in trouble?” Jesus is all about obedience. The idea of Jesus is often about our own comfort.
The last statement Matt Chandler said that really stood out to me was:
“There is something that happens when that switch flips and you get that God delights in us.” – Matt Chandler
I remember when I first understood fully that God delights in me just because he loves me. I grew up thinking my worth was tied to what I could do for Him. It was through tragedy that I learned this but it’s something I will never forget and it’s something I want to spend the rest of my life telling others about so that they to can have that switch flipping moment. When you realize that Jesus is consumed with you it does something to you and you can’t get enough of Him. Your life changes and you realize what Mother Theresa knew “Jesus is everything”
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