Eternal – Yahweh – Part 1 – Week 3 – Sermon – Matt Chandler – 3/30/25

hey guys pastor Matt here um one of our Visions at The Village Church is we want to be a place that resources liberally the big sea Church of Jesus Christ and if by his grace we might leave a kingdom Legacy with those resources we want to be all about that and so thanks for watching this sermon or preparing to watch this sermon I I'm praying that you're watching this in community in conjunction with your ongoing discipleship at a local church and and if by the grace of God this becomes one of those things that continues to build up your faith encourage your walk fuel your love for Jesus would you consider giving to the ministries of The Village Church it's actually really simple you could either do it in the app or you can go to the village church.net backg and and do it there I hope that the next chunk of time as you watch this sermon you find your affections for Jesus soaring you find find courage flood back into your bones and you fall more deeply in love with Jesus than you are at this moment God bless you ((music playing)) ((music playing)) good morning everyone my name is Joshua Bagby and I'm on staff in the technology department here and I am the technology associate thank you thank you uh and I also have the privilege of reading our scripture this morning it's in Psalms 90 veres 1 and two says Lord you have been our refuge in every generation before the mountains were born before you gave birth to the earth and the world from eternity to Eternity you are God this is the word of the Lord thanks be to God thanks Joshua hey good morning how are we good uh I've got a little bit of a cold so sorry about that hopefully it's not too distracting and if you had difficulty getting in here this morning I uh apologize uh on while we were building building uh the parking garage uh the men and women of flower Mountain cares which is a place for optimism and uh rainbows uh were super upset about the parking garage and then about 200 of them last night uh thought that it was a great place to come Park their cars to save it from the storm we're a welcoming home so that's fine uh but it's just kind of created a cascading uh effect here this morning so if you had a hard time getting in I apologize uh for that uh but I'm glad that you made it and glad that you got in and apparently we can park our people and a couple hundred local residents and so um excited that it worked out the way it did in the 1970s that's 1970s um we were in a moment kind of like this and what I mean by that is in 1969 we may or may not have put a man on the moon depending on what you believe about that uh technology was in a place that we had never imagined it could have been uh we were learning things in medicine and about human biology that was extending uh the length of Life uh and it was a time of uh like like great optimism like we're unlocking things kind of like we are right now in 2025 like we kind of feel that in 25 we're learning things Technologies like like leaps in I mean it would melt the brains of the two guys I'm about to mention if they could seene up to 2025 cuz in 1970 um these two philosophers Samuel goric and Alistair McIntyre set out to try to answer the question the question that they were trying to answer is why we fail at what we set out to do in the world and they were trying to get to the bottom of what we would call human error that no matter what great advances in technology or what knowledge we have the they keep breaking down and and philosophically they were like yeah cuz people people are involved uh and and they made the the statement that much of the world and the universe is and will remain outside of our understanding and control and they cited two very human reasons for this the two human reasons for this were ignorance right and ineptitude and No Matter What technological advances we make uh no matter what we learn about biology human beings are always going to be ignorant and inept and and if you're like man I'm really glad I came this morning it's okay you you are and I am and we all are because that's part of what it means to be human and and so even for where we are right now in 2025 um my wife and I were both in the hospital earlier this year and I know you're probably are you sickly man I promise you I'm not I I promise you I'm not just three times so far this year but other than that I'm great um like like we were in the hospital uh with a virus I wish I could tell you what that virus is the truth is we don't no but after 20 20 blood panels and multiple CTS and chest x-rays and a spinal tap and we don't know I don't know if they ran all that through chat GPT to get its advice but like they just don't know like the complexity of the human body and the the volume of viral possibilities we we're still ignorant and then you and I both know that even times we can have the right information but not know what to do with it that's being inept so so you can know and not be able to do and and you can not know at all because the world in the universe is a really big massive place and the subject matters are too ex extensive and and so that's that's where we kind of get jammed up uh and so this series uh that we're in right now is on the incommunicable attributes of God they are God's godness how he is different than us not not how we can be like him but how different he is from us and and why that matters and uh this morning what I want to talk about is God's eternality that God is eternal God and God Alone is eternal you're not Eternal you are Everlasting are you tracking with me on the difference of that like as human beings I have an everlasting soul but I am not Eternal let me Define Eternal for us um Eternal means with without beginning without end and without succession of time and I'm going to explain all three of those so if I could put us on a scale with God this is what it would look like this right here um no not that that's the uh that that's the series bam there it is so the line goes in both directions without beginning Without End there's you look how thin that line is like just hardly hear it all in the scope of of Eternity now I if I could have made this more complex I would put you there and then I put another arrow forward because you are Everlasting you are going to live forever either in the presence of your creator or outside of the presence of your Creator and one of those is preferable but we'll get to that near the end of this sermon but this is how we show up on the line of History right there just that b just that one little like couldn't make it any smaller than that I'm not I didn't make that slide you know I didn't make that slide we couldn't make I'll use the we mean somebody else uh Mark Gooby could not make that line any thinner than it is right now and it still be seen on the screen or it would be smaller now than it is now this is important because when we think about uh human potential we're almost always looking horizontally and feeling infallible are you tracking with me like the way we work because we're just that little smidge in eternity and we can't really see past ourselves we we just kind of look horizontally when we look horizontally uh I mean human beings look like we we can do it all we can have it all we can accomplish it all and human potential is fairly spectacular I mean human potential is I mean I'm not dog in human potential it is unbelievable what Humanity has accomplished on a global scale uh I was in Florida Friday uh and I was back here on Saturday and that did not take me a couple weeks to do that was a 2-hour flight like in a tube going 500 mil an hour at 32,000 ft that that's pretty spectacular I still I've never gotten over that uh every time we take off I'm like a 11-year-old boy again uh I mean I it's it's amazing what we've been able to accomplish but when the Bible starts talking about us it always talks about us in comparison to who God is it's like God's strength versus our strength God's power versus our power God's knowledge versus our knowledge God's Beauty versus our Beauty which is why when you read about Humanity in the Bible it rarely gives you the warm fuzzies because it's not comparing you horizontally it's comparing you vertically and so when you get into uh well let's read our verse for the day um I'm very medicated so who knows what's about to happen this is Psalm 90 starting in verse one Lord you have been our refuge in every generation that's the application here's the sermon before the mountains were born before you gave birth to the earth and the world from eternity to Eternity you are God and so let let's talk about us we are the opposite of this we are Everlasting we are not Eternal here's Psalm 910 our lives last 70 years or if we're strong 80 years even the best of them are struggle and sorrow indeed they pass quickly and we fly away the average lifespan of a human being right now is 72 years now women live a little bit longer than that if you know dudes you get you know why I don't have to say anym about that but 72 years is about the average according to the text and maybe even according to to science um if you're strong maybe you get 80 maybe you get 80 if you're strong Psalm 629 common people that just means normal normal people are only a vapor and man I know us right now you like well I ain't normal great cuz he he wants to talk to you next important people an illusion together on a scale they weigh less than a vapor James 4:1 13-14 come now you who say today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring what your life will be for you are like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes do you know that that that science tells us that again notice how often science is catching up to the B that's my favorite part of science right like you know if you rest one day a week you'll have greater peace I was like yeah we've known that for like 4,000 years grateful that you guys are finally on board but that you know that science is telling us that no one can hold more than three or four distinct thoughts in their minds at any given moment I'm not talking about neurod Divergence here with you add folks I I love that I love that t neurod Divergent as opposed to um you know add or ADHD but like that doesn't mean we don't reload quickly it it just means that you you can't hold more than four distinct thoughts in your head at any given moment now what happens with neurod Divergence you know you just reload real quick as soon as you tackled that first one or forgot about it both happen you you reload and so the add folk they just always have four right like normal folk probably have one or two us you know us like nerd of Virgin folk we got four trying to jam a fifth in there before one leaves that that's us but but by and large this is what we can do and then here's Ecclesiastes that chipper little book in the wisdom literature for who knows what is good for anyone in life in the few days of his futile life that he spins like a shadow Solomon just needed a hug who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun and I could go on and on and on here this is how the Bible talks talks about us a vapor a Mist here for a moment and gone does not feel that way I go no life feels long anybody go life feels a little long just me oh well maybe you guys can preach next week are you not going to interact with me at all today I'm fine I can stretch this thing into an hour and a half um no yeah life feels long maybe maybe it feels like this maybe the Days of Our Lives feel strong long cuz it like life moves fast but but days feel long yeah this is how the the Bible's going to talk about us not because it's not seeing it horizontally it's seeing it eternally why because God is eternal and then that that brings me to God uh when the Bible talks about God they they talk about him being without beginning they they talk about him being without end and they talk about him without succession of time so let me talk about each one of those uh I can remember here's my first memory first memory of my life we had been living in Sous St Marie Michigan so for you michiganders let me get my hand out yuper right uh up in the peninsula right like not a great place to be except maybe a month out of the year uh and then we moved to the Bay Area a and my first memory is showing up on base dad was in the military showing up on base 305 bowling Drive was our address and and I got to run up this hill Hill and and run into this hous like thing that was on base and that's my first memory as a child running up and and busting in and and finding which you know claiming my room like I was going to get any real say o over which was my room 305 bowling Drive getting out of the car in the Bay Area and running up that that's my first memory as a child anybody else know their first memory I mean okay three of you all right well let's just do it I'm I can get more aggressive um yeah so but then on top of that like I I love history if I could go back and do my life over um I I would have majored in history and then gone to Seminary um not done Bible and then gone to Seminary um but that that's it so I love history and I love World War II history uh I love anything about the Roman Empire in fact you remember that little funny thing that was online there for a while where you're supposed to ask any man in your life how often they think about the Roman Empire and like women were stunned that almost all their men were like every day every day of my life I think of the Roman Empire right and then we can just keep going back but but if you go back far enough our brains and our records and our history just stops what was before that well God was before that remember last week God is uncreated we are created he is uncreated and so the Bible tells us that God three in one God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit three in one perfectly content in the godhead a loving Union uh of perfection overflows onto the canvas of creation so that God has always been and then it it goes on and says that he is Without End so not only does he have no beginning but he has no end um I uh I get to be my wife and I um the proud owners of a home that needed all the air conditioners replaced and and here's what was like for all the technological advances and I think I've Got a Theory um when when they came to replace the first one um they they that that unit had been there close to 30 years and and so they were putting this new one in and I was just going man well I'm it probably won't be here for the next one he's like well actually these last about 12 who is in this wait what and so now I'm in this conversation W with a guy that's taking half my annual salary because it's in Texas and without this you'll die it's one of those kinds of needs here and and it's like the quality has regressed from 30 years ago on this air conditioner unit now my theory is capitalism my theory is if we make this jankier they'll have to buy more and then what are we going to do about it I I don't have enough skill to build my own some of you guys do that's not I'm I'm a thinker not a tinkerer right that's new I might start using that so I I get and then the next year I got to do another one I'm like great I'm on the clock 12 years from now before I'm out another 35 Grand right like have you ever not there's always an end to everything there's an end to our strength there's an end to our knowledge there's an end to our energy like I I frenetically hum pray for my my wife man I I mean I've got energy until I don't until I don't and sometimes it sneaks up on me sometimes it's not like oh wait I'm getting tired sometimes it's it's like like a off switch and and this is like every thing comes to an end but the Bible is saying that God doesn't he has no expiration date that he was before anything and he'll be after anything he just is always and then he he doesn't this is where the brain starts to like have a hard time Computing he doesn't just go on forever he is forever his being is not measured by time time bows to him God is never in a hurry and every Christian in the room said amen he's never in a hurry he's never late he's never rushed he's never panicked time bows to him he's not on time's timeline the whole timeline is his and then he's without succession of time so that this just means he's outside the sequential flow of moments so so you and I we live in What's called the moment present that's what it's called which means right now you're here with me and and if I could say hey tell me about last week you could reminisce on the last week you could tell me your favorite thing about last week you could tell me about the worst thing that happened last week and then I said what do you got this week you could tell me what your hoping is coming this week you could say well I've got lunch with my sister I'm super excited about that or man me and the family are heading here and I can't wait or me and you but you're still here in the momentary present and 10 minutes from now you're going to be in the momentary present and 6 months from now you're going to be in the momentary present and 20 years from now if you're still with us you're going to be in the momentary present it's the only place that we can be but God is different God exists in What's called the Perpetual present he stands unchangingly in and beyond all moments this is why the psalmist can declare that with the Lord one day is like a a th years and a thousand years like one day how's that possible well because he's not following uh a sequential series of events he's outside of those events seeing all of those events as they are and we talked a little bit about that last week so I won't go on forever uh aw toer says this about the Lord the Lord is the one who dwells in eternity with time dwelling in him he's making the argument that eternity find its substance and fulfillment in God so that God is not in eternity eternity is in God himself God is not a servant to Eternity he is eternal let let me just walk through a bunch of Bible for you on this he existed before creation that's Genesis 1:1 John 1:1 John 175 John 1724 he endures forever but but this is all on the screen if you're over 40 you can't see it fine take a picture zoom in later um he lives forever that's Deuteronomy 32:40 Revelation 10:6 Revelation 15:7 he is the Timeless Lord in the Everlasting God he is the one who inhabits eternity he is the one who has performed and accomplished it calling forth the generations from the beginning he is the first and the last he is the king Eternal with eternal nature and power whose purposes are also Eternal this is why David is blown away and says this in Psalm 8 when I observe your heavens and the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you set in place what is a human being that you remember him a son of man that you look after him do do you hear it like this God who is eternal eternality outside of time still knows and sees you mindful of me that you know me and we could get into the Bible on this too like he knows uh the number of hair on your head some of you that's going to be a lot easier than others but he he knows right he's like one uh and and but but he knows so keep in mind this is always really big moving in near really big closing the distance this is the god of the Bible and and so I I think maybe the question you're asking is okay what does that mean all right let's do some application well I told you when we were in our primary text for the day the first sentence was was our application Lord you have been our refuge in every generation if God is already in tomorrow if he sees it if he knows it if he's there then he is the Refuge for our souls he sees he knows he's never shocked he's never like like caught off guard no one's ever surprised him or shocked him he has never had to brainstorm he hadn't called in subject matter experts he's never grabbed like my guardian angel and God I told you to keep an eye on him it it's never happened that way he is there so why would I carry the weight of tomorrow why why would I put that on me what control do I have over it how could I make anything different about it like what gain do I have by being paralyzed around anxiety for the future I'm not saying that the future isn't and can't be scary I'm saying that the one who is out outside of time is already there he's already there which makes my submission to his Reign and Rule all the more sensible and reasonable and right and beautiful and good and we've talked about this I mean I've been here 23 I had a beautiful plan for my life that I'm so glad he didn't give me I don't know if you're there yet I I had a beautiful plan for there was not this and I wrestled with him quite a bit over that but he know I mean he he he knows how have been miserable he knows how have been miserable now he couldn't have told 22-year-old Matt that I mean maybe he could I probably wouldn't listened was absolutely convinced that my path was my path and I knew what I wanted and I wanted you know and and the Lord who was already here back then was going no no Hey listen I'm I'm trying to lead you into your own joy and my glory they're inseparably linked Matt will you trust me and and I mean I was trying but he knows I don't know now by the grace of God all these years later I'm quicker not as quick as I want to be but I'm quicker there's a bigger body of evidence now to go oh my gosh okay you did know you you do know what you're doing you are smarter than me you do know more than I know I should trust you more freely and frequently yeah this is the god of the Bible and then here here's something that should happen with this biblical truth this should humble us and drive out our pride this should I'm not saying it will I'm saying this should um and and Pride's he here's you know I'm I do a Thursday night discipleship with a group of men and I I'm I'm having trying to have deep conversations with men as often as I can so I I know more a little bit about their bent simply because I am one uh and then I I work closely with a lot of men most men think Pride just means um I I don't think I'm better than anybody but that's that's not even the primary way Pride Works itself out the primary way Pride works out is by thinking you don't need any help ever that's Pride like I'm strong enough I'm smart enough I shouldn't struggle with this I shouldn't have these doubts I shouldn't be I shouldn't be like and and then you create distance from God and others refuse to be vulnerable put on that false self that's all put together and never struggles and wish somebody would it's not reality but it's Pride this says there there's somebody who does know there's somebody who is strong there's somebody is outside who I can trust and and again I I think this is why Psalm 73:26 is in the Bible My Flesh and my heart May Fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever so if you build your life on your flesh in your heart what happens when you run out of strength and your heart gets broken but if God is the strength of my heart and my portion what I need to live on then then you become unbreakable you anxiety's driven out of your life you're walking in a humility that acknowledges that there's someone who knows and it's not you that there's someone who's all powerful and it's not you that there's someone behind the madness and that you're not going to be able to manipulate and control control your environment to get the life that you want there's a surrender to that and an Awakening to his presence and power drives out anxiety infuses confidence into us not not confidence in US confidence in him not confidence in my ability but what he sees and knows and is up to right um uh the church I became a Christian in um First Baptist Church of tech City Texas they they had an Outreach training program program called evangelism explosion any oldheads remember that yeah okay I they're they're my Baptist folk um I mean was whole thing raas ga's ee Wednesday night visitation and prayer meeting I mean we did we did the whole thing at the church I became a Christian well in evangelism explosion um they taught you prompts questions to ask people so so that you could get into a spiritual conversation uh and so the first question you had to memorize is if you were to die today and you were to stand in front of God and he were to ask you why should I let you into heaven what would you say and and so people would be like well you know I'm a good guy or you know I used to but now I don't or they would have some reason why they think because everybody thinks they're getting in I mean I don't think anybody's like uh I don't plan on going I I don't think I've met that guy yet I'm sure he's out there or she's out there but I I just haven't come across him um and and then now you're in a spiritual conversation if they're like well you know I'm a good man of kind of trying be the best version of me I can be then then you get the opportunity to go oh brother man I love that but that that's not going to be acceptable like it it's like your goodness brought into the light of God's holiness looks like filthy rags you're still looking horizontally friend right because if our righteousness is based on what not God's eternality but on looking around okay I'm better than that guy better than that guy better than that guy I mean obviously I'm getting in better than these people I'm reading about on the news those social media I'm better than those folk right that that's all what moral standard are you living into or for or about and and then it just looks really good like if I step out of this light and come over here I'm going to be off shot you're fine um like you just not much light over here so something can be in my hand I'm like oh that's amazing amazing then you step over here and then oh my gosh now I'm in the light now now I see it for what it is and and I think this matters look at me because you are Everlasting your physical human death will not be the end of your soul the Bible's clear that the the soul is Everlasting and based on what you do with Jesus Christ you you will either move towards the eternality of God and that perfect love that exists in the godhead and I'm hear me you you're not going to be an angel that's not what we believe Heaven is not going to be on a harp play you know on a cloud playing a harp just singing forever that that caused a little panic attack in me when I first became a Christian we'd sing Amazing Grace and they'd be like when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun we've no less days to sing God praise than when we first begun like man I was like 10,000 years of singing and there's no time off the clock like none like no less days there's not a single less days to sing God's praise then when we started 10,000 I'm telling you man I would just I loved all the other verses that was like can we skip that one when we sing it it just created a little but that's the the Bible paints a whole different picture it it's a remade Heaven and Earth where even the most beautiful things for us today are refined and made more so and that we'll be in a literal physical place we'll have literal physical bodies and the Bible alludes to maybe there'll be work there without toil that that there'll be all sort like materiality everywhere there's there's Gates and homes and hills and uh Crystal sea and there I mean it's it's it's like a real place here refined and renewed everything Unholy and broken burned out and forgotten and only God's presence and power and his people remain reigning and ruling alongside of him forever and for those who would say yes repent of being their own Gods and say yes to the free grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ that ever increasing Joy is the promise starting now not at death now the purpose of the king om of God driving us forward sealed with the promise in our souls God knew what he was bu it's not Perfection he's giving you Perfection not demanding it and then there are those who will live forever who say no thank you and here here's what's interesting about the I can't believe God send people to Hell God doesn't send people to hell he gives them what they want you want an eternity se you want nothing to do with God he will give you what you want and what we know the Bible teaches is that everything good and perfect comes down from the father above uh and so maybe you're one of those guys I'd rather be in hell with my friends well friends are good that means it's not there and so this eternality thing it's huge for us in the here and now in that little bitty line that Vapor that we have this is a huge decision because life moves fast and nobody knows like when our last day has come I'm saying this as a pastor I'm saying this is the guy who gets the phone call and got to go to the hospital and meet with the family after the accident we get to be right behind the First Responders sometimes like we just don't know and I'm not trying to scare anybody into heaven because I don't think it works that way I think you can be scared into heaven I'm trying to get you to consider that God has made a way in Christ not for you to be condemned but for you to be saved from the condemnation of being your own God of rebelling against your Creator and an invitation to participate in this life eternal with the creator of the universe and so here's what we're going to do I'm going to pray for us and while I'm praying for us our prayer team is going to come up front uh just uh some men and women who are members here who have been trained they're just going to come up front and they're here for you and here the kind of of two movements that I I think should happen um one um if you're a Christian who in this season of Life maybe for really good reasons are are feeling just overwhelmed with anxiety just overwhelmed at what might be about to happen in your life I I'm going to invite you and and please don't think this is a harsh word repent of that no repentance is always an invitation into greater peace and life it's a call from God that there's more for you than you're walking in and so don't ever despise conviction it's a sweet gift of God calling you into all that he has for you uh and so you you need to take some time and you can come up and do that with some of our prayer team members you can do that in your seat but it's just this moment I am not trusting you with tomorrow help me help me trust you with I want to let this go I want to hand this to you I want to give this to you I'm too I'm Too Human to carry it and some of us need to repent of Pride like I'm I'm always stunned I say this kind of stuff all the time uh and there are some of you right now whole life is on fire and nobody knows you've pulled back from God you've pulled back from Community why well it's Pride you want everybody to think you've got your act together maybe you don't but this has to be a safe place for that is't that what God came for like just go read just a cursory just few chapters on the disciples he picked most of those guys couldn't get hired here like you don't you don't have to play strong in fact I would say vulnerability and confession actually reveals true strength there's help available to you why what think about it like why do you think you don't need it or you're not supposed to need it and then there are some you you've been invited by friend friend you've been reading the Bible with a friend a friend's been praying for you and you're here the offer on the table for you today is relationship with your creator there's been this Chasm created by sin so that you're not running on what you were even meant to run on you're running on ambition you you're running on caffeine for sure you you're running on the American dream and it it is all going to betray you I I don't know you brother or sister or friend um um but man you make a crummy God how can you not how can you not you lack knowledge you you're inside of time you're in the momentary present there's nothing you can do about yesterday certainly nothing you can do about tomorrow and and the one who's outside of all of that is inviting you to surrender to his Reign and rule that that's a safer place that that's the place that drives out anxiety and I just want to invite you w you you that just ask Jesus to save you tell them you don't you don't have to pray in the King James or anything just tell them you don't want to rule and Reign Over your life anymore that you want to surrender to his and then man we would love to know that you did that so we can start walking alongside of you and encourage you in that and helping you wherever we can so I would love for you to come up and just tell one of our prayer team m i just ask Jesus to Reign and rule over my life uh we'll pray with you ask you a couple questions and Men we're already baptizing several this morning if you want to hop in there we we got t-shirts and shorts and towels and this place freaks out like a buzzer beater in March Madness when people get baptized here um and and so if you want to join that this morning we'd love to do that this morning uh and so God is eternal Immortal indivisible he alone is God for the rest of us we're just going to sing a song called Praise Him it's just about praising God regardless of Life Seasons or circumstances he's worthy of Praise regardless of the momentary present that we find ourselves in father thank you for these men and women pray a blessing over them uh Holy Spirit I just ask courage in the bones of people uh I ask for those who have never surrender to you for surrender I ask for my brothers and sisters who are just racked by anxiety right now just pray that they would move towards you they would close the distance I thank you for how you've done that pray that this would be a place Mar marked by your peace marked by a deep Abiding Love for your Reign and Rule I thank you that that I don't have to know because I know the one who does that I can rest in the fact that you are for me not against me that where you and I might disagree about an area of my life you are right and I am wrong and so will you Minister deeply to our hearts there's a thousand things in the room I know nothing about and there's nothing in the room that you don't know about minister to our hearts Lord it's for your beautiful name I pray amen would you stand with me as we sing