Matt Chandler: Resurgence Conference 2008

Okay...I know that I am seriously biased towards Chandler since I have been podcasting him over a year now because "Orthy" turned me onto his preaching. But, Matt brought it today. He poured his passion towards the congregation and the Spirit of God was felt. I know that sounds little hokie, but completely true.

The "sermon" was titled, "Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World." I put sermon in quotes because it was more of an admonition and exhortation than biblical exegesis. Chandler's main point was to understand and practice the sufficiency of Scripture.

The main focus being that we need not only preach the "how" of Scripture but also the "why?" He mentioned that it isn't enough to preach how to be content, or how to be committed, but to focus in on also the "why" of these things. The why being focused in on the exaltation and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matt's focus in on this is because of the fundamentalist charge against liberalism was to rebut them through the liberal questioning of the inerrancy and infallibility of the word with a focus in on the word being a combination of a lock. Meaning, if you have an issue, you just needed the right combination of verses to unlock the power contained within it. The outcome was then a bunch of big headed jerks with no hearts. It was, as Matt put it:

All about the head, and not about the heart.

Matt then went on to show the shape of our problem is also found in the enlightenment. Matt pointed out the following:

The poison of the enlightenment was the death of the soul, earth became the new heaven. Rational pragmatics became king. Numerically in size was a bigger importance instead of the number of transformation of lives.

Then he pointed out that the sixties brought about sermons that, because of the frustration with institutions and progress, were more contemporary relaxed models of worship and really religion with light fair.

The best part of the entire message is when Chandler told everyone to allow God to bring about your calling and stop trying to be the next Driscoll, or the next Piper, or the next...whomever...

He said, and I quote,

The Holy Spirit uses Driscoll in a lot of ways. Driscoll can tell you that you are stupid on a Sunday morning and everyone will say, "yes I am, how can I be saved?" But, if you try and be Mark, instead of who God has called you to be, you are going to look like a bunch of jackasses!

It was on point, and drew a lot of "oohs" and "ahhhs" and ultimately seen as truth.

In the end the "sermon" was very well done. It was on point and the ultimate understanding that I came to, was that the gospel is the truth and it is sufficient for the apostles culture, the reformers culture and even our culture.

Matt really brought it today, and not sure if anyone can live up to his billing.