open our eyes and our hearts to the goodness of your grace.
From “Gospel Clairty” by Matt Chandler, Easter 2011
So belief is more than intellectual assent. Belief is more than, “Here are the facts.” Belief is, “I’ve been transformed by this reality.” So I need you to hear me say this. If you have no transformation, it should bring about you questioning your salvation. I’m not saying you get up at 4:30 in the morning by the waking of the Holy Spirit and read Jonathan Edwards for three hours before you memorize the book of Galatians. That’s not what I’m saying. But I’ll ask some legitimate questions.
Is there a yearning in you to know God, to serve God, to walk with Him, to submit to Him and to make much of Him? Now we stumble about as we do this. But is that yearning there? Is that longing there? Is that desire there?
Because I’m just going to lovingly tell you that if it’s not there, then something is broken. And maybe that’s a hardness of heart that occurred long ago when God said, “Go left,” and you went, “You know what? I’m not going left. I’m going right.” Maybe you were wounded deeply by someone who bore the name of Christ. Maybe you were part of a church that was unbelievably unhealthy. There are other reasons where that flame of yearning for you could have gone down to just a little spark, but Hebrews clearly says, “Let us worry if we have not entered into His rest.”
So do you love Him? Do you want to worship Him? Do you want to follow Him? Do you want so serve Him? As strongly as I can put it to you, if you don’t, I would question and doubt your salvation for the good of your eternal soul. I think some of you are exhausted trying to earn what was freely given to you.
And some of you have given up on something you’ve never tried. You’re like my kid with vegetables. “I don’t like it.” “You’ve never even tried it.” “I still don’t like it.” You already have it in your mind that it doesn’t work. It does work. And do you know what I’ve got on my side? Thousands of years of history. The question is not, “Does it work?” or “Is it real?” The question is, “Will you submit to the Holy God of the universe and allow Him to be your motivation and allow the Spirit of God to be the fuel that gets the movement of the gospel to work in your heart and life. Now I can only answer that for me, which is why it’s always frustrating a bit being a preacher.
Let’s pray, “Father, I thank You for these men and women You have drawn to this place. My hope is that You would open up our eyes and hearts to Your goodness and grace. Even those of us who have walked in here tonight in a tough spot, maybe religiously exhausted, maybe having a hard time believing that You could love us, care for us, pursue us, I pray that You would melt all those lies away in the light of Your cross and the light of the fact that You knew every hair on our head before one was there, You knew all the days of our lives before one would be lived out and still Jesus went to the cross. You do not regret the salvation You have extended to us. So I pray that, by the dozens if not by the hundreds in this place, You might draw men and women to Yourself. I pray that there might be a keen understanding of the gospel, maybe for the first time. I pray that we would be able to trust that You love us and that we have free reign to pursue You, not because we’re clean or unclean but because You declare us clean in Christ. As we turn our attention to worshiping You in song, may You stir up our affections for You. Help us. It’s for Your beautiful name we pray. Amen.”
