Externally Processing My Way Through Life

If I was honest...and I know this is church and not the place for this at all. I know we got up today and before we got here, read the Bible for an hour and a half, meditated on it and prayed as we walked in...But if I was honest, do you know what I want for my daughter? I would love it if she would meet a very, very, very godly young man. And listen, the chances of that are slim. There's a lot of neat Christian boys out there. It's hard to find godly men. It's like the dodo bird, they're almost non-existent anymore. You can laugh; I weep. I weep because I've got a daughter who will meet someone who loves her like Christ loves the church. And they're just rare cats, man. We're praying them in. And I would love for that dude to just come in and romance her. I mean, just make me go, “That boy's good. I'm stealing that idea. Don't tell your mama.” I want that kind of guy, and I want her to live in the burbs where she's safe and she can raise little grandbabies and I can spoil and not discipline them at all. And I want her to outlive me. And I don't want her to take risks with her life. I'll risk mine. That doesn't bother me. I just don't want her to do it. So, I'd like that for her, but my hand on that had better stay open, lest I become an idolater. Because maybe God is going to reach a group of people in some other part of the world with her suffering. My hand had better stay open. And I love my house. We don't live large, but I like my house. It's an older house. We've worked on it. I love my house. It's not wrong for me to love my house. But in the end, it's not my house. That hand had better stay open. And like I said we don't live large. I drive an '01 Impala with like 140,000 miles and it's starting to backfire. But the air works. I love my car. I love that car. Part of it's probably where I've come from, but I love that car, man. I talk to her. I love that car, but my hand on it had better stay here. I love the Village. I plan on being here the rest of my life. I love this place. My hand had better stay open, lest I get confused and think anything is mine. And that's how idolatry happens. And it's the reason we stay away from the Lord, because we're afraid that if we press into Him, He's going to address this thing. And we don't want that. Because in the end, we value it more than we value Him. And we think in the end, this is more beautiful and more necessary than He is.

Matt Chandler