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Matt Chandler – Hebrews Chapter 11- addressing graduating class of SBTS

(Legatura (link-ul) la sfirsitul articolului va duce la predica considerata printre cele mai bune din anul 2009)

Chandler grew up a military kid, moving around the country until landing in Galveston, Texas. He was taught that Christianity meant not listening to secular music or seeing R-rated movies. His views began to change when a high school football teammate started talking about the Gospel.

After college Chandler became a fiery evangelist who led a college Bible study and traveled the Christian speaking circuit. He was hired from another church in 2002 at age 28 to lead what is now The Village Church, a Southern Baptist congregation that claimed 160 members at the time.

The church now meets in a renovated former grocery store with a 1,430-seat auditorium; two satellite campuses are flourishing in Denton and Dallas, and Chandler speaks to large conferences.

Chandler’s long, meaty messages untangle large chunks of Scripture. His challenging approach appeals, he believes, to a generation looking for transcendence and power.

Suffering well: Pastor’s faith tested by cancer                  Matt   Chandler featured on TV & in   USAToday  Feb. 2010

Thanksgiving morning. Chandler pours himself a cup of coffee, feeds 6-month-old Norah a bottle and — as he is about to sit down — collapses in front of the fireplace.

Chandler has no recollection of the seizure. He bit through his tongue and punched a medic in the face.

At a hospital, Chandler gets a CT scan, followed by an MRI.

Not long afterward, the ER doctor delivers the news: „You have a small mass on your frontal lobe. You need to see a specialist.”

It was Thanksgiving. Chandler had not seen his kids — Audrey, 7, Reid, 4, and the baby — for hours.

He had collapsed in front of them. For whatever reason, those grim words from a doctor he’d never met did not cause his heart to drop. What Chandler thought was, „OK, we’ll deal with that.” Getting the news meant he could go home.

Chandler is trying to suffer well. He would never ask for such a trial, but in some ways he welcomes this cancer. He says he feels grateful that God has counted him worthy to endure it. He has always preached that God will bring both joy and suffering but is only recently learning to experience the latter.

Since all this began on Thanksgiving morning, Chandler says he has asked „why me?” just once, in a moment of weakness.

He is praying that God will heal him. He wants to grow old, to walk his two daughters down the aisle and see his son become a better athlete than he ever was.

Whatever happens, he says, is God’s will, and God has his reasons. For Chandler, that does not mean waiting for his fate. It means fighting for his life.

Click here to read the entire  USA Today article.

Here is a video Matt shot before his surgery, recounting how he counts it worthy that God would allow him this trial:

Here is the Hebrews 11 message he challenged  the  Southern  Baptist  Graduating Class on November of 2009. It was considered one of the best messages of that year:

http://vodpod.com/watch/2513033-sbts-resources-hebrews-11

Family series: Part 2 Defining Masculinity by Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler is Pastor of The Village Church (3 campuses) of  Dallas, Texas.

Matt Chandler defines masculinity in Parts 1,2, 3, and 4  (approx. 10 minutes each):