Matt grew up in a Christian home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where he enjoyed surfing and beach volleyball. Rachel grew up in Madison and attended Blackhawk from a very young age. They are both graduates of Wheaton College, where they met playing volleyball. They were married at Blackhawk in 1994, and were involved in youth ministry in Ft. Lauderdale for the next three years. From 1997 to 2000 they served with Peak 3, a high adventure ministry to youth in Colorado. They moved to Madison and Matt began his ministry at Blackhawk in August/September 2000. Hannah was born in October 1999 and Leah on January 1, 2002.

Hi again everybody.  It’s hard to believe it but my time of sabbatical is quickly drawing to a close.  The 2^nd week of our family road trip was as memory-filled as the 1^st week.

After our time in Atlanta, we headed to Birmingham, Alabama to spend Easter with my little sister, her husband, and their 3 kids.  Life is quite busy and full in their house on a regular basis as their twin boys are 3 and full of energy like few kids I’ve seen.  Add their 8-month-old daughter to the mix and life becomes quite a juggling act.  We had a great time with them and got a chance to worship at their church on Easter.  I always enjoy going to worship services where I am not known as a pastor and can go into the service to worship and experience without any responsibility.

We spent 3 days with family and then drove from Birmingham to Gulf Shores, Alabama on the coast.  We felt that this would be the perfect way to end out the trip as a family.  We knew that we would be staying in a condo on the beach there, but… we had no idea of how amazing this condo was.  Oh my!  We were on the 12^th floor of a resort condo overlooking the bay.  Every night, we experienced the most amazing sunsets that I have seen in a long time.  The resort was set up with 7 pools, over 10 hot tubs, a lazy river, and a boardwalk right along the bay that took you to pristine, white sand beaches.  While we were there, we enjoyed great seafood and the girls experienced eating oysters for the first…and last time!  Let’s just say that they weren’t big fans.

The time passed quickly in Gulf Shores and after 4 days there, it was time to pack up and begin our drive back north.  On our way home we stopped briefly in Nashville, Tennessee to catch up with some old friends, and then it was major drive time to get back to Madison.

Looking back at our road trip, I have to say that it was the highlight, by far, of my entire sabbatical.  Our family time together was so rich and full of experiences that we will remember for the rest of our lives.  We laughed hard, shared great stories, tried new foods, and experienced lots of different places together. God used the time to draw us together as a family.  The time was priceless and I am grateful for it.

Now we are back in Madison for the last week of my time off.  It will be a pretty relaxed week,  catching up on sleep and getting ready to step back into life at Blackhawk this Sunday!

If you are interested in seeing pictures of our journey, take a look at The Metzger Family Roadtrip 2012 album on facebook.  Here is the link.  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101257045841937.3105733.8622108&type=3

Cousins!

On the beach!

Walk on the beach!

1st Oyster….. yum?

The view from our balcony!

Hello everyone. Wow! Is the time flying by.  We are on the portion of my sabbatical titled, “The Family Road Trip” and oh, what a trip it has been so far…

We left Madison and headed to Indianapolis to spend some time with our friends , the Daltons.  The Daltons used to live in Madison and they had girls exactly our girls ages who were some of their best friends.  It was so good to reconnect with them.   It’s fun how you cannot see certain friends for a good amount of time and reconnect with them and feel like no time has gone by because the relationships are so strong.

After a day with them, we were on our way to the Smokey Mountains for a few days.  We stayed in the city of Gatlinburg, TN which is like the Wisconsin Dells in the mountains on steroids.  Crazy tourist land, full of candy shops, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” exhibits and t-shirt stores.  It was fun to take this all in…for about a day and a half but it is also located right on the edge of the Smokey Mountain National Park which is the reason why we chose it.  We spent a couple of days hiking through the woods, walking down rivers and hanging around by waterfalls.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Funny how you can be in an area full of tourist attractions created to entertain you but the best entertainment is to simply get out in God’s creation.

We then left the mountains and headed to Atlanta, Georgia to spend time with lots of friends we know here.  Over the last 10 years, I’ve built many friendships with Passion Ministries and Passion City Church through being a part of their different conferences and gatherings.  Their staff has become like family to us and whenever we are with them; we feel like we are filled spiritually.

Yesterday was Good Friday and we had the chance to be a part of a worship service that Passion put on for about 12 thousand people who attended.  It was such a fantastic time of worship!

Today is our last morning in Atlanta and needless to say, the time has been incredible. This morning, we head to Birmingham, Alabama to be with my little sister and her family for Easter.  We will keep you posted in a few days on how the rest of the trip continues…

At the Georgia Aquarium

Good Friday Service with Passion Church

Candy Store in Gatlinburg

Hiking in the Mountains

Hello from Sunny South Florida!

As I write you I am sitting in a condo on Fort Lauderdale looking at the ocean waves build in size on another sunny 80 degree day.  I’ve been here for a week and the time has been incredible.  During the first 2 days here, the waves were great and I spent about 6 hours a day in the water catching as many waves as I could.  On the third day, the wave size dropped off and I spent a couple hours with buddies on long boards catching very small but fun waves.  The last few days have been flat but it’s given me time to relax (since after all of the surfing, my arms felt like noodles), go for runs on the beach during the day and catch up some with family and a few friends.

My niece, Melinda got me hooked on “Instagram” which has been a fun way to be updating folks with pictures while on the road.

Time with God has been great.  It’s amazing how much time you have to read and pray when you are by yourself.  And the scenery just adds to the richness of the experience.  Tropical landscape and vast ocean move me to a place of thankfulness to God.  When I look at the ocean, I am reminded of how small I am and how big He is.  Needless to say, relaxing has been wonderful.  While I’ve been here, I’ve finally hit the point of forgetting what day of the week it is.  A realization that I have had on this trip is that I really do like being alone. Being such a people person, I was a little nervous about what it would be like to be on my own for a week but I have really enjoyed it in ways that I did not expect.

I get on a plane tomorrow to fly back to Madison to connect with the fam and get ready for our 2 week road trip.  I’ve missed my three girls a lot!  Skype is such a great thing!!  Hannah is in her school musical this week so I will get a chance to go see it twice.  Once she is done, we hit the road.  So more to come on family adventures this next week…  Well, that is it for now. I’m off to get my last day of surfing in.  The waves look fun!

Amazed by God’s goodness,

Matt

Here is a shot of me with my folks and my older sister and her family.

The view!

For those of you that want to still dive more into Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, here is another resource from Tim Mackie.  These are his notes from his Old Testament class that he teaches.

 Proverbs

Structure:

1-9                   Speeches: (1–7 from Father to Son, 8–9 from Lady Wisdom)

10–22:16         Proverbs of Solomon

22:17–24:22    Sayings of the Wise

24:23–34         More Sayings of the Wise

25–29              Proverbs collected during Hezekiah’s time

30                    Sayings of Agur

31                    Sayings of Lemuel

Main Themes in Proverbs

Creation: God has “wired” into the universe according certain patterns of justice and recompense – Proverbs 8

2. Wisdom is rooted in the “fear of Yahweh” – 1:7, 9:10, 14:26–27, 19:23
• The prerequisite of wisdom is the acknowledgment that God will uphold and enforce these principles.
• Wise people seek out and live by these principles: 1:2–6

3. Justice and Retribution
• The Righteous/Wise are those who live in harmony with God, society, and the world (even animals! Prov 12:10)
• The Wicked/Foolish are those who disrupt that harmony on all levels.

4. Proverbs are by nature general and about probabilities: they present truth, but not the whole truth at once.
• The application of Proverbs always depends on the situation.

 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. 

Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.     Prov 26:4–5

• They are reflections on how life usually works out . . . but not always.

The Book of Job

Structure

1–2                  Narrative Prologue

3–31          Job’s Dialogue w/ the 3 friends (3 cycles)

32–37        Elihu’s Monologue

38–41        Yahweh’s monologue

42:1–6       Job’s response

42:7–17           Narrative Epilogue

Main Themes in Job

1. The story is cast as a “dramatic irony”

–        From the prologue to the epilogue the reader knows more than any of the characters

2. Plot Conflict: Job suffers without deserving it, or ever knowing why.

3. Job’s friends misapply the message of Proverbs

–        Premise: Suffering is always the result of sin, blessing results from obedience – Eliphaz in Chs. 4:1–9, Bildad in 8:1–7

–        Fact: Job is suffering

–        Conclusion: Job must have sinned – Zophar in 11:13–20

–        Problem: The reader knows that Job has not sinned [Chs. 1-2]

4. Job’s response

–        He maintains his integrity

–        He agonizes and intensely wrestles with God: 9:21–24

–        He demands an answer from God – a court hearing: 13:13–23

5. God’s response

–        As creator and sustainer of the world, God is intimately involved with the workings of his creation. He has not fallen asleep on the job – Ch. 38

–        God owes an explanation to no one, not even Job: 40:6–14

–        God never directly answers Job’s questions

Ch. 38 – Q’s about Job’s non-participation in creation and its management

Ch. 39 – Q’s about the life of wild animals

Chs. 40-41 – Q’s about Leviathan and Behemoth

Innocent suffering is a hippopotamus. The only sense it makes, it makes to God and it is not totally amenable to human rationality.

David Clines, Job 1-20 (Word Press), p. xlvi.

6. Point: The book of Job does not explain why we suffer, but gives us a model for how we can find God in the midst of suffering. We must maintain faith and hope alongside our frustration and disillusionment

(a)    Patient Job: (the prologue and epilogue)

(b)   Protest Job (the dialogues)

God challenges Job to consider the fact that he is one very small part of a vastly complex world that sometimes seems to operate contrary to justice. But lack of human comprehension does not make it so. The point is that God’s will and ways do not always make sense to people with limited perspective. God’s intention is not to browbeat Job, nor force him into submission, but to show him that any human relationship with God is first and foremost founded on trust.

Ecclesiastes (Hebrew “Qohelet”)

Structure

1:1                   Author’s Intro

1:2–12:8          The “preacher’s” words

12:9–14           Author’s Conclusion

**Key Observation: Ecclesiastes is not written by the “preacher.” Someone else has collected the preacher’s teachings and organized them into this book. BUT, 12:9–14 shows that although the author sees value in the preacher’s words, he does not endorse all of his teachings.

Main Themes in Qohelet’s Musings:

1. Death and the cyclical patterns of the world call all human effort into question

–        Cyclical patterns: 1:2–11

–        Death is the great equalizer: 3:17–21, 9:1–3, 9:9–10

2. Wisdom and Fearing God have some practical benefit…

–        Wisdom makes for a better quality of life: 7:11–12, 9:13–18

–        Fearing God can lengthen one’s life: 8:11–13

3. …but death calls this into question: 2:12–16

4. There is no clear connection between one’s moral behavior and the consequences: 9:11–12 (so don’t be too extreme in your moral efforts, 7:15–20)

5. God’s justice and ways are ultimately inscrutable: 8:16–17

6. So enjoy whatever good things that come your way, this is “the gift of God”: 2:24-26, 3:12–13, 5:18–20, 8:14–15, 9:9–10

Main Themes in the author’s Conclusion:

1. Qohelet’s words are valuable and provocative: 12:9–11

2. But one must be wary of their skepticism: 12:12

3. Fearing God and keeping the Torah is the bottom line: 12:13–14

There can never be a real, final hope for man unless man first faces and fully takes into account the utter hopelessness of death….  No man can really find peace in life unless he has first made his peace with death.

Within the larger context of the Bible, the teacher in Ecclesiastes is essentially a kind of negative theologian, asking questions that can be answered only by a future revelation of God, and clearing the road for this revelation by smashing any and all false hopes to pieces….  Ecclesiastes is the Bible’s “night before Christmas.”…  He shows us human self-sufficiency stretched to its absolute limit and found sadly wanting.

Robert L. Short, A Time to Be Born–A Time to Die (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1973): 100, 106.

Hey everyone.  It was great getting a chance to speak last night at CAM.   As I said, here is a lot of the info from last night that I said I would make available.

Verses from last night:

Eccelsiastes 4:4-8

⁴ And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

⁵ The fool folds his hands
and ruins himself.
⁶ Better one handful with tranquillity
than two handfuls with toil
and chasing after the wind.

⁷ Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

⁸ There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!

Prov, 14:30

³⁰ A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones.

 Prov 27:4

⁴ Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?

Prov 16:18

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.

Eccl 12:13

¹³ Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.

Resouces:

Donald Miller’s book – Searching For God Knows What

Andy Stanley’s 3 week sermon series – The Comparison Trap

Veggietales – A Snoodle’s Tale

Hey everyone.  I’m stoked to be able to give one more talk before leaving on my sabbatical.  Kayla has asked me to speak on Wisdom Literature – namely Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes and Job.  In preparation for tomorrow night’s talk at CAM, here are some points about Wisdom Literature found in the Tyndale Bible Dictionary that you can look at ahead of time.  I’m putting these up now as I’ll be diving into one topic for tomorrow night and not doing much background.  Hope this is helpful.

Matt

The starting point for an understanding of OT Wisdom Literature is Proverbs. Its wisdom concerns morality—the knowledge of how to live properly. It has a theological foundation, though much of its wisdom is secular in form. The starting point, as for all wisdom, is the reverence of God. But for the most part, the concern of the book is to convey the fundamentals of morality, the virtues of integrity, discipline, justice, and common sense, and to show by way of contrast the failure in life that awaits the fool.

Wisdom is “more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Prv 3:15–17, rsv).

Ecclesiastes reflects the wisdom of a man who had lived long and seen the world from all perspectives. His faith was not the superficial faith of a man who lived easily and believed lightly. The man had seen that the righteous do not always prosper and the wicked suffer. Too often the righteous suffer, with no relief from their suffering, and the wicked enjoy their lives in carefree abandon. The writer of Ecclesiastes sought justice, but as he observed the world through honest and objective eyes, he could not see that justice was always done. More than justice, he sought truth, but even truth in its ultimate perspectives eluded him. All was vanity, a grasping after wind! Yet for all the skeptical and apparently negative tenor of Ecclesiastes, it is a magnificent monument of faith, a faith that held on to God despite the agony and pointlessness of a world filled with evil and vanity. This wise man could not soar with hope like that of the prophets, but he could hold on to the fundamental truth of God when all else, including understanding, failed. So the book of Ecclesiastes may become an intimate companion to those who see the world as it really is, in all its agony and apparent vanity.

Whereas the writer of Ecclesiastes described the grief and sadness of the world from the perspective of an observer, Job grasped the problems from within, from the perspective of the sufferer. Job knew the ancient proverbial wisdom and had lived his life by that wisdom, but he had an experience that called into question conventional morality and wisdom. He was a pious man, an upright man, whose life embodied the precepts of Proverbs. Prior to his experience, he had no cause to doubt a simple interpretation of proverbial wisdom: righteousness led to prosperity and happiness. But then Job’s world collapsed, and with it the wisdom by which he had lived. The loss of possessions, property, and prestige; the death of his children; the pain and suffering of terrible illness—all these things conspired to raise an enormous question as to the validity of traditional morality. But the wisdom of the book of Job raises an even more fundamental question than the validity of morality; Job questioned the premise of all wisdom, God himself. In what sense can God be just in the face of such apparent injustice? In what sense can God be just, when unjust men flourish and prosper (Jb 21:7–15)? Does God’s creation really reflect structure, order, and goodness, if the experience of Job is the measure of human life? Such are the radical questions evoked by Job, and they receive no simple solution. Yet in the great climax of the book of Job, namely, the encounter between God and Job (chs 38–42), wisdom is set in its proper perspective. There remains always a mystery in God and in God’s ways that lies beyond the grasp of the human mind. Wisdom is pursuit of the knowledge of God, but wisdom as intellectual knowledge can never grasp ultimate truth in all its depth, for God is always greater than the human mind and human wisdom. Yet Job adds a further truth to the knowledge of conventional wisdom. While Job’s questions were not explicitly answered, they were effectively removed; it was the encounter of God with Job that transformed the man. Thus, the ultimate wisdom lies not in finding an answer to the ultimate questions but rather in the encounter with the living God.

Conclusion

Life may seem pointless, the world may seem to be essentially a place of vanity, but the truth of God and reverence for God must be maintained in the face of radical doubt (Eccl 12:13–14). To those who experience in some fashion the plight of Job, wisdom reaches its limits and points beyond itself; humans cannot always find an answer to the questions, and the last resort is simply the experience of the living God.

It’s hard for me to believe that I have been on staff at Blackhawk Church and working with college age people in Madison for over a decade now.  When I began this journey in August of 2000, I had no idea what God had in store for me and for my family.  In that time, we have seen God work in the lives of so many people.  We have seen people’s direction in life completely change because of the way that God has transformed their hearts.  It has been an amazing ride!  And now, Blackhawk has encouraged me to take a little break….

One of the great policies that Blackhawk has in place is that after one has been on staff for 10 years, they receive a sabbatical.  So beginning on March 9, I will be taking a 6 week break from full time vocational ministry to rest, spend time with God and relax with my family.  Needless to say, I am quite excited!

The first part of my time will be spent at home just decompressing from the daily full time vocational ministry lifestyle.  Then, my wife, Rachel and I will take off to some friends cabin for about 4 days to get some time just the 2 of us.

From here, I fly to Florida for a week by myself.  The plan for this week…..SURF!!!  I’ll be staying at a condo on the beach and spending lots of time in the ocean and being warm.

I return from Florida to spend a few more days at home and then, The Metzgers are hitting the road for the good old family road trip vacation.  We have never done this before.  We’ll be traveling through the Southern US, hitting the Smoky Mountains and the Gulf Coast.

Once we return back from this, I’ll have a little more time at home to relax and then, it’s back to work!  6 weeks doesn’t sound that long when I write it out this way, but it is more time than I have ever had to relax with no agenda and I can’t wait to experience it!

If you think about it and want to pray for me, your can pray that I would really be able to relax and let work go for a season.  Pray that my walk with God would be life giving in this season and my time with my wife and girls would be rich and filled with great memories that tie us together more as a family.

….and I will see you back in late April!!!

Grace and Peace,

Matt

Hi everyone.  Here is the blog post that I promised from last night at CAM about my talk as well as information to be in touch with the Roepnacks.    For those of you who missed it last night, the main point of the message was that when we truly understand the love that God has for us as His adopted children, we find true satisfaction and are freed up to be able to love others without any strings attached.  In other words, when I am satisfied in God’s love that he lavishes on me, I’m not looking to someone or something else to fill that tank.

The passage that we looked at was Ephesians 1:3-8a

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he^[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship^[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us.

I also shared the story about Paul and Missy Roepnack and their adopted children Obsa (Moses) and Salya (Miriam).  For those of you who would like to be in touch with Missy, her email address is MRoepnack@gmail.com.

Their blog for the entire adventure God has them on is http://roepnack.blogspot.com/p/fundraising-families.html.

Lastly, her facebook page which you can find a lot of info on is http://www.facebook.com/missyspoutzroepnack

She wanted me to pass along that she’d be happy to be in touch with any of you.  Please keep them in your prayers as they continue the process to bring their two children home.

We just found out about this so sorry for the late notice.  If you have heard anything about Passion 2012 happening January 2-5 in Atlanta, Georgia, then you most likely know that it is going to be an event that you don’t want to miss if you are college age at this time.  Tonight, Wednesday, November, 30 at 8PM CST, Passion will be putting on a live podcast to gather students together prior to the event.  You won’t want to miss it as we here from Louie, Tomlin and Crowder about what God is laying on their hearts as we draw closer to January.  Tonight, go to livepodcast.268generation.com in order to connect in with students form all around the globe.  Don’t miss out!

It was so great having a chance to speak at CAM again this past Tuesday!  To all of you who were there and were wondering about the resources, here are the passages of scripture that I used as well as a link to the youtube clip for the “Choose Your Own Adventure” journey with Chad, Matt and Rob. Could be a great way to spend the evening…

Gen 12:1 – 3

¹The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.^[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”^[b]

Jeremiah 17:7-9

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

Proverbs 13:20

²⁰ Walk with the wise and become wise,
for a companion of fools suffers harm.

The story of Rehoboam is found in 1 Kings 12 & 13.  It’s good to read both chapters to get a little bit more of a perspective as to what is taking place int he big picture of the story.

And don’t forget the cheesy line of the night that I picked up from another pastor years ago.  “The relationships that I will choose will affect life’s “D’s” & “Q’s”.  D = direction and Q = quality.

Lastly, her is the link for the youtube clip.  Enjoy….and let me know how the story ends.  Enjoy choosing your own adventure with Chad, Matt & Rob!