Francis Chan at SEEK21

i am so glad for this opportunity to talk to you guys um you have no idea when the leaders asked if i would come and speak to you guys and i know we run in different circles um so some of you guys you don't know who in the world is talking to you and that's fine um but when the leaders asked me to share the gospel with you and that this whole gathering was going to be around the gospel i seriously jumped at the opportunity because you got to understand like you know the good news of what god has done for us man it it has radically changed my life um quick quick background like i my mom died while she gave birth to me my dad remarried and then my stepmom died in a car accident when i was about eight and then my dad got married again and then he died when i was 12 of cancer and so i'm like this 12 year old kid that just went to his dad's funeral and to see his body and then and then and then just see it buried in the ground a few years after i saw my stepmom's body you know buried into the ground and you know remember even after my stepmom died there would be these dreams at night and these thoughts it was so hard to go to bed thinking gosh life just ends it's just so it's just so quick it's just you know what what happens and this fear like do i just end like what happens at that moment and then going through it again with my dad and the this this searching and and i'd been in and out of churches and heard these messages but i had no clue what they were talking about but then as a as a young teenager searching and a little bit lost a little bit like man anything can happen tomorrow i've seen how life just ends they're there before you they're gone the next and realizing that could happen to me it's like what is this all about and it was during that time that for the first time i heard and understood the gospel and it changed everything everything and now it's been 40 years since that time and i am more fascinated by the gospel today that's all you need to know about me okay it's i am just a human being now i've been you know married 20 shoot i freaking like 27 years 27 years seven children two grandkids um you know so i've had a lot of life and at our 25 year anniversary my wife looked at me at dinner and she goes do you know anyone happier than us she goes you know anyone more blessed than we are she goes i keep thinking there's got to be someone but i've never met them and i thought honey that's the way i feel too our life has been outrageous why the gospel that's it and so i'm asked to share that good news the gospel i'm like yeah with a circle of people i've never shared with absolutely and what all you need to know about me is i'm more blown away by god today and the truth of this book than i was 40 years ago when i first started believing and i even remember as a teenager i would be you know studying this book and understanding who god is more and more and i would just be fascinated and i would look around that the confusion was sometimes i'd look around in churches and go on are you guys reading the same book are you guys hearing the same message because this is freaking me out right now i am blown away by this and i can honestly tell you even this morning this very morning before recording this man i'm in the presence of god just worshiping him just blown away like it was one of those moments where i you know when jesus says i want you to love me with all your heart soul mind and strength i am praising him and i feel like it's with the totality of my being just shocked just floored just blown away going god are you kidding me right now that that you know on earth so much has changed over this last year i get it but you've got to understand in heaven very little has changed you know god doesn't change you know and i love that scene in revelation 4 with those four living creatures as day and night they never stop saying holy holy holy is the lord god almighty like that doesn't end it doesn't change it talks about the the elders just bowing down dropping their crowns on the throne it talks about god almighty sitting on his throne with lightning and thunder coming from his throne and fire around there and a hundred million angels praising him all these creatures it's just like worthy as a lamb was so in heaven it's just you know this almighty being sitting on his throne we were all shaken this last year we we've had all sorts of experience god is sitting on his throne it doesn't change and so for me even though 2021 like january 1 um i i get coveted great way to start the year and so does my whole family and so we're all just laid out with fevers and and i'm like no no even in this even though we're not feeling the way we want to even though uh you know we don't we're not even in the place where we want to be because we had an amazing last year in hong kong and uh and then we had visa issues so we had to return we're like oh you know we're here we don't want to be here we're sick we don't want to be sick and it's like no but you know what god is still worthy to be praised and so when i find myself in this circumstance then i'm going to praise him i'm going to work even harder but he deserves my praise right now because he is still the same god that i worshipped five years ago 40 years ago he has been faithful to us all of this time and i'm not gonna stop praising him until i die and and so when you're in that time because i was thinking about that's why we love that first chapter of job when all those things happen and he still praises god we love reading hebrews 11 and you see all the struggles and the sacrifice and the suffering but they never stop praising god till they die and you go okay there's something worshipful something that that honors god that glorifies him when i worship him during the difficult times and so so that's why i'm just just that's all the background you know about me is that for these 40 years i've been blown away by him and maybe other people they hear the gospel and they it becomes old news rather than good news but for me i i really believe with integrity i can say to you i am more fascinated by the gospel today than i've ever been just blown away you know ephesians 2 it says and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of life a power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but god being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in christ jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of god not as a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them i was meditating on that this morning just think about it you guys we were dead we were by nature children of wrath it says there was a time when you and i we just did what we wanted it's like we just we had no conviction of our sin we just did whatever we did he said we just followed everyone else on the earth dead in our sins and it says we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind that means i was deserving of god's wrath because the way i was living in rebellion of him i wasn't aware of his presence i didn't have any feeling or sensitivity to what he wanted i just did what i wanted and it would have been perfectly fair and just for him to pour out his wrath and then it says but god being rich in mercy but this being this holy holy holy being who had every right if that was the end of the story he poured his wrath on me that's fair i rebelled but but god being rich in mercy this is what i praised for praise him this morning before i'm going god you don't have to you you you are that's by nature you're rich in mercy what if our god was not rich in mercy how would our future look because he's telling us our future is so that in the coming ages he can just pour out his grace upon us and it says whoa so i was dead and i was a child of wrath and now there's going to come a time in the coming ages when he'll show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards in christ jesus like in my sin he made me alive it's not like i was a good person it was like no it's just by my grace because i'm rich in mercy and yes you're an object of wrath but because of this great love i i give you an and i'm going to have my son die on this quarter i'm going wait so you're this almighty holy being who dwells in unapproachable light and you're telling me that you went through that much suffering because you wanted to be one with me no one loves me that much no one wants me like that this is insane that's the good news like he wants and he made a way so that we could be forgiven and be one with him and have a spirit in us man this is why we praise him this is the good news and there's this future laid out for me where he's gonna show me just how much he loves me and pour this grace out on me for all of eternity and if you believe that from your heart and you've chosen to follow him then we are a part of this body of christ i know there will be some differences with some of you i don't even know what they all are no two people have the exact same theology but it's about this life-giving gospel if his spirit is in you and you are alive this is the message that gets that that needs to be out in the world you know i i live like two right now temporarily like two blocks from the beach and um a couple days ago i i took some of my kids there and and there were these like these these gross like globs on the ground you know by the water i'm like oh you know you don't want to step on him like what is that you get closer and i'm looking at one and i'm like oh that's like a part of a jellyfish you know that maybe exploded or i don't know what hap but then you look even closer and go no that's an actual each one of those little globs is a jellyfish you know that just got washed up and i don't know why there were all of these on the shore and um you know i try to flick it back in the water you know like that starfish illustration you know and like i don't save his life you know but it just washes back up and i noticed like there was one where it was kind of twitching i go it's twitching it's still alive let me throw it in just washes back up and my kid had like this uh sand bucket so i'm like hey fill that up with water you know i fill up with water and and i scoop this one in you know and it just kind of sinks to the bottom but then it starts twitching and then it comes back to life and it starts swimming around i thought wow this is so cool but every time i pour it back into the ocean it just so i don't know i don't know the i don't know that much of my nature like why that happens um but i was intent on saving some jellyfish so i was like hey let's see if we can keep it alive at home so we brought the bucket home with like several jellyfish okay and uh and my wife had you know a base of flowers and i emptied it and i put the jellyfish in there and you gotta check this out my daughter had this like colored light so these are jellyfish and then i just put it in our on our dining room table and i'm going whoa you know what do they eat what do they do what you know so i just googled because i didn't want to do anything wrong i mean i figured i saved their lives that was a good thing um but i thought is it cruel keeping them in a flower vase um and staring at them and uh and so i just googled like jellyfish as pets and the first article was is it cruel to have a jellyfish as a pet and the answer was no it said jellyfish these things they have no brains and they have no nervous system so they don't feel anything and they don't know anything so they don't even know that they exist they don't feel anything and i'm i'm staring at him going god are you kidding me i mean i i literally stared at him for hours you know as i'm working i just kept looking up like whoa mesmerize going what are these things then god why would you create this creature that doesn't have a brain and doesn't feel anything it just kind of flicks and yet it's beautiful and i've never so i don't know i'll probably throw it back in the ocean and give them one last shot but i'm i'm just looking and amazed and it it made me think like gosh these creatures haven't they don't even understand their own existence it's just like that passage in ephesians 2 where it says we were dead in our trespasses and sins there was a point when we weren't aware of this god in heaven and we had no sensitivity to his existence and that we exist for him colossians 1 16 says all things were created by him and for him and yet somehow he gave us a mind to understand him he put his spirit in us so that we have the mind of christ and our eyes are open to the truth of the good news and and suddenly we're sensitive to the things that he hates but we were dead in our trespasses and sins and he made us alive together with christ and so we just praise him god i am so amazed that i am alive in you praise you god this is what we worship him for this is the good news and there are so many people on the planet right now so many people at your university that they're floating around dead in their trespasses and sins with no awareness of who made their minds no awareness of how he wants them to live no awareness that they are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them and it's our job now because we've experienced him to tell people of this fascination we have and why life is so good even during this crazy time in our country in our world we're like citizens of this other world where we're blown away by the grace of god and so man i just like i jumped at the chance to tell you guys i'm thrilled about jesus and what he's done for me it is good news it's the best news 40 years into it i'm more fascinated by him today and i pray the same is true of you as you keep studying his word as you keep seeking him that you never lose the fascination of the gospel and that you see yourself now as messengers of this great message for the rest of your life

Channel: Crazy Love

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Id: B07OYlJQp8k

Length: 19min 31sec (1171 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021