Matt Chandler - Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change

Copyright 2014 by The Village Church

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-8388-6

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 234

Subject Heading: BIBLE. N. T. GOSPEL \ SALVATION \ SANCTIFICATION

Unless otherwise stated all Scripture is taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2011. All rights reserved.

Also used: Holman Christian Standard Bible ( hcsb ), copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Also used: New International Version ( niv ), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

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Dedication

From Matt:

Id like to dedicate this book to the hundreds of men and women at The Village Church who have been freed from their bondage to fear, shame, addictions, and moral religion. Watching you struggle well and find vitality in Christ has been a joy of mine and fuel for my continued pursuit of the redemption found only in Jesus Christ. As I say often, I love you more than you know.

From Michael:

Id like to dedicate this book to all those who have tuned the gospel out, thinking it was not their style. Stay tuned.

Introduction

Cover Versions

You do it all the time. A song comes on the radio, and after the first two notes, youve already switched the station. Before youve listened to even one word, youve decided it doesnt suit you. Not your style. Not your thing.

But then one day you hear it playing in the background somewhere, maybe on a restaurant patio or at the beach or streaming out of somebodys car for twenty seconds at a traffic stop, and you realize... hmm, its better than you thought. Surprisingly, it kinda speaks to you. Especially that message in the lyric. Maybe theres more to this persons stuff than youve given them credit for. Up till now, youve always tuned it out. Wrong vibe, wrong genre. Nobody you know or hang around with is into that kind of music. But if you knew where it could take you, if youd known what this songwriter was wanting you to see, just by hearing it sung... and then singing along...

Thats the kind of song were here to play for you.

Its not a new song, reallythe song of redemption, the gospel. Its been around for years. But when the message meets you in the right place, at the right time, the meaning thats always lived there can suddenly start to spill all over you. Even if the songs not new to you at all, even if youve heard it sung so often by so many singersenough times that some of its luster has been lost in the repetitionthe textures and tight harmonies can still come out of the blue sometimes and stun you with its layers, its beauty.

So it can capture you.

Or it can recapture you.

Doesnt really matter which one.

Because either way, it can sing to you.

And either way, it can change you.

Sure enough, maybe the gospel was the soundtrack of your teens, perhaps even younger. You heard it played, you were drawn to the lyric, it captured your desires. Met you at a deep, special place. You identified. You jumped on it. Youll always remember the first time you heard ityou can picture where you were, what you were doing, who was there, how you were feelingthe first time you really heard it, when you truly stopped to notice what you loved about it so much.

Or maybe it took the appreciation of being an adult, or being a parentor just finally growing out of what you thought you liked so much about all that head-banging stuff you used to listen tobefore you realized there was something about the gospel that was real and timeless. It finally got to you. Changed your life.

And thats great.

But unless were missing our guess, your life and the gospel probably havent always felt in sync on a lot of days, in most of the years since. After the emotional scene with the trembling chin and the wadded-up Kleenexes, where you truly felt the weight of your own sin and the Spirits conviction, youve had a hard time consistently enjoying and experiencing what Gods supposedly done to remedy this self-defeating situation. Even on those repeat occasions when youve crashed and burned and resolved to do better, youve typically only been able, for a little while, to sit on your hands, trying to stay in control of yourself by rugged determination and brute sacrifice (which you sure hope God is noticing and adding to your score). But youll admit, its not exactly a feeling of freedom and victory. And anytime the wheels come off again, as they often do, it just feels like the same old condemnation as before.

Devastating that you cant crack the code on this thing, huh?

You were pretty sure that being a Christian was supposed to change youand it has. Some. But man, theres still so much more that needs changing. Drastic things. Daily things. Changes in your habits, your routines, in your choices and decisions, changes to the stuff you just never stop hating about yourself, changes in what you do and dont do... and dont ever want to do again!

Changes in how you think, how you cope, how you ride out the guilt and shame when youve blown it again. How you shoot down those old trigger responsesthe ones you cant seem to keep from reacting badly to, even after you keep telling yourself to be extra careful, knowing how predictably they set you off.

Changes in your closest relationships, changes in your work habits, changes that have just never happened for you before, the kind of changes thatif you can ever get it togethermight finally start piling up, you think, rolling forward, fueling some fresh momentum for you, keeping you moving in the right direction.

But thenstop us if youve heard this one before...

You barely if ever change .

And come on, shouldnt you be more transformed by now?

This is around the point where, when what youve always thought or expected of God is no longer squaring with what youre feeling, that you start creating your own cover versions of the gospel, piecing together things youve heard and believed and experimented withsome from the past, some from the present. You lay down new tracks with a gospel feel but, sadly, not always a lot of gospel truth.

See if this one, for instance, sounds familiar...

It starts off strong. Bold. Confident. Driving. Jesus loves you, He died for you, Hes forgiven you. Good. This is going somewhere. Love it.

But then it starts feeling forced. Youre rushing the tempo. Youre trying too hard. Instead of letting the music come to you , instead of just enjoying where its taking you, thankful for the privilege of just being invited into the band... youre pressing. Youre overthinking it, overanalyzing. Youre hitting the right notes pretty much, but youve lost the essence, the wonder, the pure pleasure of just playing, of being together.

And before long, the whole thing has turned really unpleasantdissatisfyingboth to you and to everybody else whos watching and listening. You start to question why you put so much of yourself into this, just to end up feeling so frustrated and unhappy. Seems as though trying to be good is too much work for what it gets you. But then again, not trying to be good costs you a lot of the affirmation and reputation you like. Makes you feel even worse about yourself.

So you set out to do bettereven if it kills you, even if it means playing your own part and other peoples parts too. Youll work harder at making music than ever. But in the end, you only succeed at turning what was once a passion into a performance. Into a personal growth opportunity, a profit margin. Always chasing, always making plans for improving. And yet it never feels good enough. Because youre never good enough. It never becomes as musical as you want it to, the way you always thought it would.