Apart from worshiping God, everything becomes superficial. But when you understand the driving force behind everything, all of a sudden there's an eternal amount of joy at our disposal, because everything we do is enlightened and enlivened by the endless glory of the eternal God.

Matt Chandler

Categorized in : Joy Glory Driving

Find the things that stir your affections for Christ and saturate your life in them. Find the things that rob you of that affection and walk away from them. That's the Christian life as easy as I can explain it for you.

Matt Chandler

affection christian easy

My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Matt Chandler

struggle past jesus

God is awesome; he doesn’t need you to be awesome. He wants you to be obedient.

Matt Chandler

need-you want needs

Love says: I've seen the ugly parts of you, and I'm staying. Our culture doesn't love love; It loves the idea of love. It wants the emotion without the sacrifice.

Matt Chandler

sacrifice culture ideas

Faith doesn’t mean an absence of fear. It means facing fear and trusting that God’s goodness is greater.

Matt Chandler

goodness absence mean

If you're not confident in the authority of the Scriptures, you will be a slave to what sounds right.

Matt Chandler

scripture slave sound

When you blow it, God still celebrates His Son in you. The litmus test of whether or not you understand the gospel is what you do when you fail. Do you run from Him and go clean yourself up a little bit before you come back into the throne room? Or do you approach the throne of grace with confidence? If you don't approach the throne of grace with confidence, you don't understand the gospel.

Matt Chandler

blow running son

Prayer does two things. It shows the complete sufficiency of God and the complete helplessness of man. It shows that God is not lacking, that He is in need of no thing, that He is infinitely and gloriously wealthy, that He can give to, He can bless and He can answer without the need of help from anyone or anything else. And it also shows that we are in desperate need of that kind of sufficiency.

Matt Chandler

prayer men two

If you’re a church person and not a Jesus person, my heart hurts for you. It’s like being engaged and never getting married. It’s miserable.

Matt Chandler

hurt heart jesus

God is not in love with some future version of you. It’s not you tomorrow that He loves and delights in. It’s not you when you get your act together....If you believe that Christ’s love for you is a future love for you, then you dismiss the cross of Christ.

Matt Chandler

delight together believe

I've discovered most Christians don't know what to do with difficult situations because they have bought into the lie that God owes us (for our good behaviour). The reality of life is that if you live long enough you are going to bleed, cry and hurt. AND God is still God IN that.

Matt Chandler

hurt christian lying

God is at work in the mess. That's the message of the Bible. That's why the Bible is not pretty. That's why it's grimy, because God is working in the mess. He's working in the tears.

Matt Chandler

not-pretty tears messages

Comfort is the god of our generation, so suffering is seen as a problem to be solved, and not a providence from God.

Matt Chandler

our-generation religious god

The more you make this world about you, the more miserable you will be.

Matt Chandler

miserable this-world world

While the good news of the gospel may not appeal to everyone, the bad news of the gospel still applies to everyone.

Matt Chandler

appeals news may

No change of job, no increased income, no new home, no new electronic device, or no new spouse is going to make things better inside of you.

Matt Chandler

income home jobs

Jesus doesn't avoid those who mess up. Jesus runs to those who mess up.

Matt Chandler

mess running jesus

So what does it look like to live a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It looks like walking with, loving with, and doing life with those who are different from you. What binds you together is Christ. It looks like striving together to make Christ known. What motivates you is Christ. And it looks like standing with courage against all oppressors, natural or supernatural. What secures you is Christ.

Matt Chandler

together doe jesus

It's OK to not be OK - just don't stay there.

Matt Chandler

God does not regret saving you. There is no sin which you commit which is beyond the cross of Christ.

Matt Chandler

saving regret doe