Francis Chan: For Those Who Don't Enjoy Evangelism - Oxygen, Sydney

okay I was uh listening to John Lennox give his his talk a few minutes ago and he made the statement at the end when he was teaching or telling a story he said I was lecturing a room of atomic physicists I will never say that sentence I love the diversity in the body of Christ and it's funny just just recently maybe two weeks ago I was speaking to a an athlete and in the US and he he was thanking me for some of my teachings and he says you know what I love about it is is that you keep it so simple for us and I told them well I don't really have an option it's just this polar opposite of what you just heard is about what you're about to get and and he is going to be hitting more of the apologetic side of this this track whereas they've asked me to speak about evangelism today and as I was thinking through how do I talk about this how do I get started in it I I thought I would just share my journey with you a little bit because some of you have no idea about my life and and and yet at the same time I feel like there's certain things I learned about evangelism through this journey my mother actually died while she gave birth to me so that's that's an amazing legacy for me to know that my mother gave her life so that I could be on this earth and for some reason God wanted me here my dad remarried and then when I was about eight years old my stepmother died in a car accident and then my dad got remarried again and then when I was about 12 he died of cancer so by the time I'm 12 years old I have had two mothers died my my father died and when I was in high school my my aunt uncle whom I was close to my my uncle actually murdered my aunt and then and then killed himself and so it was a life that was filled with just sudden deaths you know lots of things out of which would gets you thinking what is this all about and it was during that time that in high school I was invited to a youth ministry to a high school group and the youth pastor explained the gospel in a way that I understood it I'd gone to church before I grew up going to church but I never understood the basics of Christianity I didn't understand what the cross was about I just didn't get it at all and this man explained it to me taught me about the Lord he met with me every week for four years discipled me I I owe everything to him but Christianity was very simple to me at that time I would read the scriptures on my own which I thank God that he taught me how to do that hey the first thing you need to do is start reading this book and just I started reading it and started applying it just doing whatever the Scriptures taught I I read revelation I read revelation 20 about this lake of fire that the the beast and the false prophet and the devil were thrown into to be tormented day and night forever and ever and anyone whose name was not found in there in the book of life was thrown in this lake of fire I I got I got terrified I I would read about what Jesus would say and in Matthew 13 about this this type of torment I would read about Matthew 25 where the sheep and go judgment where those would go away to this eternal punishment and others to eternal life I would read the story of Lazarus and the rich man and the rich man just going off with someone just dip their finger in some water and and touch my tongue with it and and all these thought I started thinking about all my friends in high school going I I don't I can't let them go there I can't have this for them and and back in that day I mean this is thirty years ago you know we weren't questioning the existence of Hell like we do today we just read the scriptures and we thought wow you know God he he killed everyone on the earth once you with a flood that's pretty radical that's pretty extreme we'd read about him killing the firstborn of every child in Egypt and go wow that's pretty extreme you you would read about the the you know the book of Revelation all through scripture you would look at his wrath and then you would look at the gospel itself and him sending his son to die on the cross for us and all of these things were so in a way burdensome to me especially because I had so many friends who didn't believe in Jesus so I the natural thing for me to do was just to start talking to everyone at my school everyone my public school I started the Bible study on campus first won't ever do that because I was terrified for my friends I'd walk down the hallways you know in the locker halls we I don't know what schools are like here but you have these locker halls or everyone keeps their books and I would just walk through and just see the sea of people and I would think about their destiny based upon what I read in Scripture and my heart would just sank I go I love these people I've got to say something to them and I used to I I would cut class to tell people about Jesus um it's fine if you're Asian you know you're still gonna what do you do gonna be you know it so you go and this was uh this is this was my life though I remember my youth pastor on Wednesdays and we had Bible study at our church he used to pick me up in the church bus because I would bring so many of my friends to Bible study with one night I brought over 50 friends to my youth group I mean this is because I'm going I can't let them go there this is killing me I'm the guy that that my junior year we we get these yearbooks you guys do your books you know where you got the pictures everyone my junior year I remember looking at all the seniors that were about to graduate and I thought I'm never gonna see these guys again so I began calling every senior I knew one at a time and just saying look I know this is going to be the craziest phone call you may be will receive but I got to tell you about something that changed in my life and I'm concerned I don't you know when I began to tell them about Jesus I'm the guy who when I started college you know in a secular college I took speech class but just so for the only reason that I could get in front of the class and lay out the gospel to everyone I'm serious I ran for office why so I could get in front of everyone and lay out the gospel I ran for senior body you know senior class president so I give a speech at graduation I mean all I cared about was these people and loving them and thinking they don't know the love of Jesus they don't know how to be forgiven they're gonna face this holy God at any moment man my parents died so suddenly this could happen to my friends and I'm not gonna say anything to them I've got to do something I've got to do something I had to do something so man I was all about getting the gospel out man I would share with my bosses at work share with neighbors share with anyone I ran into very very passion about evangelism then I started working in a church and yeah you you know where it goes from there I mean it's just it and I love the church and I'm committed to the church and I will serve the church till the day I die but I'm also gonna be realistic about the fact that you know what in many ways I was more passionate about Jesus before getting deeply involved in the church I was far more evangelistic until I started hanging around with church people and slowly my passion for evangelism and my weeping for the loss just came to a standstill then I went to Bible College okay now that was the first time I'd ever been in a Christian school we're just surrounded by other believers and I remember just not even knowing what to do with myself like who do I talk to all these guys you know and I remember I used to ever once Saturday after hearing a lecture on Friday from one of my Old Testament professors and I it was out of The Book of Amos I believe it was chapter 6 when said woe to those who are complacent and and and it went on and on and I'm gonna I'm getting complacent and all my friends you know we're going to the beach and I thought no I gotta do something I got to share the gospel and remember just getting in my car and driving in a downtown Los Angeles and just walking around the streets talking to anyone who would listen to me you know just just the guys that were laying in the gutter and and trying to get the gospel to them and and you know but it was such a fight because I was so strange it was just as weird why would you do that man this is a time where we get educated and and if that didn't kill me then I went to seminary ok if you if people don't share their God that the gospel in college man seminary it's like never I mean you just don't have time for it first of all but then now you're you're sitting around with a bunch of other people just studying some of these finer points in theology which I am all for but there's another side of you that gets deadened when you just talk to people about these issues and you lose touch with the rest of the world and you start telling seminarian jokes and and you know it's just like it was just a strange thing that by the time you graduate you just start going I don't even know how to talk to my next-door neighbour anymore and then then I planted a church and the church began to grow and but I always okay it just it's just something I got when I read this book it never sat well with me that I wasn't just telling people unbelievers about Jesus I could preach about him but as far as personal evangelism it became less and less and less and I remember going to the pastor of the largest church in town and I asked him I go hey I go you ever feel guilty for like not just talking to people about Jesus and he said no I'm like really like your neighbors or the guy down the street or just passing by someone and you think man he's headed for an eternity apart from God and you don't say anything you don't feel guilty he goes no because that's not really my job that's the people in the congregation that's what they should be doing I just Shepherd them and I thought I like that okay I'm gonna go with that you know cuz I don't want to share my faith I don't want to be rejected there are times where I don't I don't even know how to start the conversation and especially I know the culture here is very similar to where I live in San Francisco where they don't want to hear about Jesus and about moral absolutes and so who wants to start that conversation anyways man and so when he said no I don't feel guilty cuz I'm like you know what I'm gonna follow you I like that why cuz in my heart I didn't want to share my faith and this is what's destroying the church because what happens is pastor start thinking well that's not really my job and what do all the people in the congregation say well that's not really my job that's your job right and so then pretty soon you've got people at the church going man why don't you come to work with me and share the gospel to my I don't you know the people I work with and it's no one wants to do it because we don't like being rejected this is easy get in front of a people you know people who believe like you do and just sharing your thoughts in her you know let's amen oh yeah we but but to get in front of people who don't believe and don't want to hear what you have to say and be willing to be rejected who wants to do that and so what started happening in my life was I was very good at preaching the gospel but not very good at sharing the gospel with individuals and I think that's a real danger that happens in the church and I've talked to so many people who just say you know it's just this system that we're in it gets us less and less bold about sharing our faith the longer were a part of the church which is supposed to be the opposite right everything you read in Scripture was they would gather together to stir one another up it was to give courage to encourage one another that did to say no I know you don't want to go share your gospel you you can do it let's lay hands on them and give them courage that's what you see in the New Testament you see Peter and John escaping prison and and everyone lays hands on them and they start praying for greater courage you have Paul you know telling the Ephesians pray for me pray for me so that I can preach the gospel boldly like I ought please I need this I need this you know Paul's telling Timothy God didn't give you that spirit of fear you know you're courageous you have this power but that's not really what's happening in our circles most people lose their courage in the church i I know for myself I get this feeling of inadequacy a lot of times like I don't know enough you ever feel that way like I just don't know enough especially those of you who've gone to Bible College and Seminary and you listen to these professors who are just so far beyond you I mean for some most of us and you just go gosh I'm I don't know enough I don't know enough and then we as leaders start feeling as we compare ourselves to some of these theologians going I don't know enough I don't know no and if we feel that way how do we think our people feel and so it's this plot of Satan to get us all feeling like we don't have the power we don't have the skills we can't share our faith and and so we change our methodology I okay I was a I was at this conference very early on after I in my church to start to grow and so this nationally known pastor I went to his conference and he was talking about his his Christmas musical outreach that they do big Christmas production and he talked about how we had hundreds of people in his church that would come to the church for months working 1015 hours a week as volunteers preparing for this Christmas musical you know dancing singing and everything else and he talked about the budget that went hundreds of thousands of dollars going to this production and people would come visitors would come unbelievers would come and it was a good thing and I'm listening wow that's great what a great event but then afterward I went up to him I said hey you know I love what you did I think that's wonderful but you had all of these people come and they spent 10 15 hours a week at the church building rehearsing for this musical I said if they had spent that same 10 or 15 hours a week getting to know their neighbors having dinner with their neighbors and sharing the gospel with their neighbors wouldn't have done a lot more than that musical and it would have been free and his answer was this he says well yeah of course he goes but people aren't willing to do that and back then I was like oh yeah you're right so but now I'm going wait that's stupid like wait we can't just change the system we can't tell people ok that scares you so let me do something that won't scare you see how we lower the bar it's like ok you won't go get to know your neighbor but you'll dress up like a reindeer and saying you know let's we'll do that then let's do that whereas is that what you see in this book no it was people gathering up the courage taking courage and saying you know what this scares me to death but this is what we as followers of Jesus Christ do as we go and we proclaim the gospel I mean Christ came back from the dead and said all Authority has been given to me that's now now go go make disciples of all the nations start baptizing teaching that this was the great command was to go and this is why he's given us the spirit because that would give us power to be his witnesses right and in acts 1:8 and yet we will come up with every excuse not to do it and I'm just saying I get it I'm with you and it's hard it's difficult and you start looking at your own life and you start going well if I don't do it how can I ask my people to do this and it just becomes this ongoing circle and so then we just sit in our church meetings with our church staffs and talk about programs talk about services talk about anything other than us actually going out and just looking at another human being in the eye and having a conversation with him trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit and trusting in the power of the gospel itself that there's power in the words of God and it's going to take a miracle for anyone to believe and so we go out in that type of faith that type of courage again let me just make sure you understand it is true that Seminary those were the worst years of my life if I could relive three years of my life it would have been my three years in seminary hands-down worst years of my life not because I was being educated and not because I don't believe in education I believe we should be studying the Scriptures vigorously the problem was we're studying so much we had no time to apply it and that's a very dangerous habit to to develop in your own life where I can study the word and not do anything about it very very dangerous led me to a ton of sin in my life most hypocritical period in my life was seminary it was so bad that I had to stand in front of my youth group 200 high school students and stepped down from my ministry in front of all of my elders and say look I'm not who you think I am tell all these students yeah this is not you I don't know what I've become this is who I never wanted to be 22 years old and stepped out of ministry for a little bit just waited tables started working at a Mexican restaurant but something great did happen during that time as I was waiting tables I fell in love with the other waiters and waitresses that I was working with and I remember coming home one night and just bawling my eyes out with the thought of them being separated from God I mean just crying hysterically and I thought wow I haven't cried in years over this this brings me back to before I was a pastor before I got into a paid ministry and at that point I told God I I don't I don't ever want to work in the church again it's it's robbing me there's there's something when you're expected to do something and your job to do something rather than when you just love someone and I remember just praying that I God you can't let Lori go to hell you can't let Harmeet go to hell you can't let Ron go to I'm gonna live the godliest life possible you know because you answer the prayers of a righteous man I want to live such a righteous life because you cannot to save these people I love them I love them and I'm crying God please save them man Paul talked about this in Romans nine when he talks about this anguish this this unceasing sorrow that he has where we're in Romans 9 he says I'm speaking the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were a curse and cut off my Christ for the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh he goes I have this anguish and unceasing anguish and I was feeling it I felt it in high school I felt it in junior college I took a break for a few years in Bible College and Seminary but then when I started waiting tables again as I go it's back this anguish this pain this hurt I mean when's the last time you literally wept for the lost we-we-we just get busy doing other things to where we don't feel this anymore and I get it sometimes you just think man a few years ago I wrote a book about Hell that's the last thing I wanted to write about but in order Feud some of this teaching nowadays they said a loving God would never do this using human reasoning rather than the scriptures I just had to write this book but it was it was awful I didn't want to believe in it I'm thinking you know I'm gonna research this again because I've gone back on some of the things I've believed you know some of the things I was brought up with I'm the first to say I don't believe that anymore and when it came to the topic of Hell I go wow maybe there isn't one that would be awesome you know at that was the mindset with which I started reading the Scriptures again and I'm going I don't see how you can get this this is all about wrath there's more about wrath and there is about love and grace this is there's some scary things that Jesus said terrifying things and we can argue about the eternality of this or that but ultimately there's there somewhere and it is awful and and and I I don't know I just worse worst day of my life wasn't my grandmother died and she was a Buddhist and I remember just trying to share my faith with her right it you know as she was already brain dead but I was too scared to lay out the gospel to her before and I remember just crying and trying to share than the best Chinese I could you know in her ear just you know trying to lay out the gospel and begging God but then you know those are the times when you just want to toss this in the trash to be honest it's like oh I don't want to believe that she's somewhere else I don't want to believe that but my logic wouldn't allow me to do that that and I it's experienced too much of God so I get that we don't want to think about it and that's why we don't have this unceasing anguish and great sorrow in our hearts we don't want to go there it's too painful but Paul that that passage always I always struggled with Romans nine because Paul talks about how he could wish that he could be a cursed for their sake and I always thought no way that like I mean I love people but I'm not gonna trade places with them I mean would you would you be willing to be cut off from Christ for the sake of someone else I I can't I I don't know I I just God I I'm not there I don't know if I'll ever be there to love like that and so my first thought is like I don't think he really meant that and I and III you know as what I studied it looked at it in the Greek and the same as English pretty much you know it's just like wow he really meant that but then you just go I can't believe anyone could love like that and then I realized that's why he starts off the chapter the way he does he goes I'm not lying like no you are yeah you know but that's the way he starts a chapter because I am speaking the truth in Christ I am not lying my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit because everything in us is going there's no way no one loves like that and he goes no I'm telling you the truth the Holy Spirit bears what this is how bad it is for me because I have this unceasing anguish I live with this I live with it every day it doesn't stop it haunts me and then when you look at his life you start reading like second Corinthians eleven with all the beatings and imprisonments and the shipwreck and the starving and the floggings and the stonings and you go gosh i think he really did believe this way and think this way and feel this way and love the 'we have this unceasing anguish in his heart when he looked at people and my concern is in the church I'm not seeing that amongst pastors I'm not seeing that so how in the world is it going to be amongst our people I those are no I planted a church and I was a pastor there for 16 over 16 years saw this little group of 20 people groped about 5,000 we planted like seven or eight other churches we started a Bible College we're sending people everywhere but I just remember one day looking at my staff we had a large staff probably 60 70 people at one point and I thought what do they do all week I mean what we pay these guys I'm like what do we do and how many people hear the gospel on a weekly basis because of our ministry like how many times is that gospel come out of a person because this was the time when people started lifting me up and going off man Francis Chan is leading one of the fastest growing churches in our nation thousands of people are coming look at this thing well you know we just wrote a book you know the best sell oh look at this look at what's happening I'm going wait a second I think we're failing here I've got 4,000 people we're spending about 4 million dollars a year and how many people are hearing the gospel on a weekly basis how many of those 4,000 people are actually speaking the gospel to an unbeliever during the week because that's what this is about and I started really realizing now that everyone thinks I'm successful this is actually a time when I'm actually failing I mean when I had 200 people and we grew to 2,000 that's success those 200 people led 10 of their friends or whatever to the Lord that's a wonderful thing I mean if I'm a Salesman I deserve a promotion right my group of 200 salespeople each made 10 sales and we're at two thousand and then when I had two thousand people you know maybe they each made a sale or so and we got the four thousand but now I've got four thousand salesmen and spending four million dollars a year that's a big budget and how many people are hearing the gospel now ten fifteen a week maybe that's what we call failure in the business world you know and yet in the Christian world will celebrate it and write articles about and put you on a magazine I don't know I something's off here something's really off in fact this structure doesn't even allow us to grow any more we can't fit anyone else and so now we have these people that just gather every week to hear the gospel for me again and again and again and again and to hear from me and the missional focus was just gone and yet this is when everyone wants to hear you speak and I'm going now this this isn't right this something is so off here and we've got to make some changes again and Miriam ffice eyes I've committed my life to serving the church I'm not a parachurch guy I'm a church guy I love the church and I believe I'll be serving and teaching the church until I die and making disciples in the church until I die but I believe we need to be honest about the state of the church and I believe it's too late to just tweak a couple of things and change a little bit here change a little bit there it's it's it's time for an overhaul it's time for something to change I don't believe I'm rebellious I believe on the norm I believe most people think this way and that's why you know I don't know what it's like here but in the States once you turn 18 you're out of the church you're done with it you know once you're no longer forced to go there you know they're all the stats say the kids that grow up once they turn 18 about 70% of them leave the church they're not interested anymore they didn't see the real thing I think part of the reason is the way we're doing things doesn't make sense those who argue for the existence of hell live least like it exists and we preach about this death to life experience like that Ezekiel 36 pile of dry bones that suddenly comes to life we're talking about we were once dead in our trespasses and sins but now the Spirit of God actually entered into our bodies were these new creations and the world looks on and goes but you're no different this doesn't make sense you say you believe in this that you don't tell anyone about the existence of this place and then you say that you've gone from death to life but I'm looking at your lifestyle and it's no different and people are growing up in this and they're come on I don't I don't believe it I don't get it I was talking to a Muslim just just last week you know just just start a conversation with him and and and start sharing and and he by the end of it he goes okay you know what honestly I grew up in the church he goes but growing up in the church I realized this can't be it this can't be it so that's why I began to search for other things it's not like I wanted to leave my faith it's just that man I grew up in this and you hear this all of the time if you're out sharing your faith you hear this all of the time I grew up in the church I've been there I've done that I didn't see anything and at first you go well what's your problem what's this was your ears blinded by the world like and yeah yeah maybe they are but but ask you a question try to think imagine right now if you were not a Christian okay just try to imagine that right now you're not a Christian none of you believe in Jesus okay this is just say there's a roomful of atheists right now just picture yourself you don't believe in God in your head it's it I don't believe I mean don't say that's you you know what I'm saying okay just try it I know it's really hard cuz some of us have known the Lord so long and we can't imagine not knowing him but just try to imagine it for a second imagine that okay I don't know what to believe I don't know what to believe and maybe you're searching and in your mind you're thinking you know what maybe there is a God I I just want to find truth you picturing yourself doing that I just want to find truth where would you go would you go to the Christian Church I don't think I would that's a reputation I seriously probably would go to Islam first I go at least they're willing to die for it you know they'll blow themselves up for this belief what is it maybe I'd go to some Eastern teaching where there just seems to be like this peace about them and a tolerance but what I really think the Christian Church I mean when you think the Christian Church you just think hypocrisy you think I've been to one of those services before I walk in there maybe some of them are better than others and there's a more entertaining speaker or a better band but is that really drug you to God I mean if you weren't unbeliever what would you want when you walked in a room what would you want to see what didn't you want to see the man up front whoever was up front like where where he you just saw man that guy talks to God that guy knows God in a way that I don't he talks about the way God listens to his prayers he doesn't listen to me like that I wonder what that guy has you don't care if he's got the slip presentation you don't care if there's a cool little dance Timur a great little drama at first anyone can do that you're searching for God and you're going man does that person have that does he really believe it you look around in the group man see this is why people are leaving the church they read the scriptures and they look at that early church and they go man no one claimed that any of his stuff was his own there was this love amongst this group of people there was this tremendous love that was Jesus's pray or right God make them one in John 17 why so that the world would believe that you sent me would you really go to the Christian Church because of its unity you just go man they can't even get along with each other they just come up with a new denomination every week and every else how many these churches are splitting and fighting about this and that is that really what would attract you is that where you would go I'm just saying I I wouldn't do it and I don't think I'm just God I really believe I'm the norm and this is why people are leaving the church in droves and good news is I believe that this could change and I believe from what Jesus says that he was going to build his church and the gates of hell wouldn't stand against it and the good news is this it does happen in other parts of the world you know I mean I would love we left America for a little bit and I went to Asia because I thought man I've always heard about the underground Church in China I want to see it and I was blown away and I go wow that looks just like what I read about it finally makes sense then I went to India and I spoke at a conference for the persecuted church people who had lost their lives or inundated my last their lives there their relatives they watch their relatives die people they were missing limbs people with scars on their body beaten for their faith and I'm I was so blown away that I asked the leader cuz after a week there I'm going it seems like everyone's serious about God here but where are the casual ones there's gotta be and he says well actually there aren't he goes that doesn't make sense in this region why would you casually become a Christian you lose everything you lose your job you lose your home you get ostracized from your village look at all these people they had to flee into the the jungles for their lives why would you casually do that Wow now when I was at the underground Church in China okay they said it's a little dangerous you know this one this is where they're training some of the missionaries and so I didn't take my whole family I just took my oldest daughter good she's the most expendable and so we go and you know firstborn and so we go and man I wish I wish I could transport you there I wish you could have just walked into this environment and listened to the way they prayed listened to the way they sought after God listen to their testimonies they start talking about different times when the police came after them because they were you know gunshots and they're just talking about not in the psalm way but with joy like man it was awesome they were firing as ironic you know and and and I'm just wanting to hear more and more and more and they finally asked me of course they're like why are you so interested in this and I said because this is not the way it is in America and they're like really I go you in America we have these buildings called churches and and we actually just attend there for like an hour hour and a half a week and and we switch like if there's a better speaker at a different one we'll go to that one and if there's better music in another one we'll go to that one if we're gonna fight with someone we'll switch it this one if the child care is better and these people just start laughing now like giggling but like hysterically and I wasn't trying to be funny I was just explaining why it was so intriguing to me like oh this is but they were literally laughing to the where my daughter when we left she was I don't know what 16 or so 14 she says to me tad was weird I go I know she goes did you see the way they were laughing and you weren't even being funny I go exactly but they thought it was comical because they're going how did you get that from this how did you get there and you start realizing that the majority of the world well you know for me and the states going man they're actually they actually find what I call or we call their Christianity laughable because the lack of congruence from this book because we keep changing things oh you don't want to share your faith you don't dress up like Santa sing a song can you do it so you're not you're not scared of that do that in fact let me cater to you what kind of church would you like how long do you want the services to be okay you want you want you want support groups where everyone's exactly like you okay so anyone in their 30s that enjoys mountain bike right you will do a group for you is is that cool now will you come and what about if we don't we'll just that's not really sin well let let more of the sins go come on to floor so this is not that big let's just keep making it easier and easier so we get the customers in the door and people around the world are going what are you guys even doing over there I just realized you know what I can't go down this road anymore this is stuff that I've thought ever since I was a kid I mean when I first started reading this book and I would look around the church I was a part of and think is everyone okay with this because I see something different in this book but everyone seemed to be okay so I'm like well maybe I'm off maybe I'm the weird one but it never let me go and then when I remember when I turned 40 is like seven years ago I just thought you know what I'm just gonna say it why am i holding this back I'm 40 I'm practically dead let's just you know yeah how long are you gonna live and so I just go I'm gonna stand before God I just got to say everything it's on my heart and I started laying out ago ever wondered if we're just missing it and you saw I was I was in front of like 30,000 college students and they're all like and I go I knew it I knew I wasn't the only one you read this book and you see something different about Christianity something different about church and sometimes you just wonder have we become like the church in laodicea where it's this lukewarm thing that God is gonna spit out of his mouth and you yeah and now I'm just at a point where I'm going I can't do it anymore I can't do it anymore ever since I first started reading that book I knew my responsibility to go out and love people to the point where I would weep for them and lay out the gospel and be rejected for it I just want to I just want to be a part of a body I don't care how big it is but where the people are the real thing and they'll actually give the shirt off their back for me and I know when I turn around they're not talking behind my back grading my sermon but if they love me and they don't actually care about the stuff on this earth because they really believe in this treasure in heaven they're not gonna question existence what difficult things happen because I just realized you know what anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted I just felt like the church became like a bunch of soldiers that they were running into battle and then running back to the general shooting at me I said what did you expect there's a war as one gonna be comfortable there's a fight and I believe that this is what the Lord is calling the church back to but it starts with us it starts with us saying you know what I want that I gotta have that the difficult thing is that you start talking that way in thinking that way and trying to build your church that way it's not necessarily the best church growth strategy and they'll start going to the church down the road that says man just come and sit down and we'll take care of everything we'll disciple your kids for you when your friends are the Lord you die I don't want you to have to lift a finger and yet I just look in Scripture and go that was never christ's intention for the church and but i'm hopeful because i see a younger generation rising up and most of them are leaving the church but there's another pocket of them that are saying no we're gonna go after the real thing we're going after the real thing the other thing that's really encouraging because i see heads nodding was for a while it was just the youth but lately there's this different trend which i love there are these 50 somethings that have gone through the whole entertainment church system and they found it lacking and they're going i want something else and they even tell me friends why do you just speak too cautious we need this too we want this too we're not satisfied with it either maybe we were for a little while we thought wow that's cool we could entertain at church but now we want God back like we want it we want a hundred percent real thing where we're all experiencing him and not just a good service and there's more and more that happening and gets me excited about this shift that's happening then we're getting forced into I don't know about you but I I just I dream of walking into gathering one day where there's tremendous love like I never witnessed before see I had thousands of people coming to a gathering to hear me speak but they did not love each other and when I started my church I didn't really care I didn't I I didn't think about that isn't one to fill up the room I just wanted to preach the gospel he's one lay it out and and so you never thought about them needing to love one another yet that is our apologetic that was supposed to be what convinced the world let me three minutes okay and then we'll take a break because I know I've gone long but I'm I just want to get to I actually have notes I usually just kind of ramble but everyone's like okay this is good but I just I want to walk into a gathering where the guy who's praying up front actually looked like he was praying to someone radner's closing her eyes and going oh lord thank you for this day what uh what a great group of you know you're talking to a holy God what an honor to come into his presence man what if someone's searching walked in don't you just want to see you know wouldn't you want to see someone that's just connected to him can our churches get there we're we're loving each other we're the person up front is actually praying to someone talking like he's speaking to a holy God where that where the leader was not just a great speaker but it was someone that knew Jesus deeply and and would cause others to envy that where the people actually hungered for holiness confessing and repenting not not just trying to relieve guilt or see how much guilt they get how much sin they can get away with and still go to heaven but where the people longed for holiness where the people actually were on a mission to share the gospel and believed that they wanted to get this message at the ends of the earth everyone felt that and they had a compassion for the poor that Jesus spoke about where people were clearly alone with God during the week where you walk into a gathering you knew everyone in there had some serious time alone with God this week and now they're coming together to celebrate where people believe they received gifts from the Spirit that enabled them to build the other people up that there are given spiritual manifestations for the common good and they walked in going man who can I serve today who can I build up today man I'd love to be a part of that I'd love to be a part of Church where there's just some sign of something supernatural going on and a statement I heard not too long ago as someone just said you know that's the problem in today's church it's neither super nor natural it's it's see anything unusual in it and the parts that and there's so much is just forced and timed and manipulated and and wherewhere is the sense of awe of I just gathered with a craziest group of people that are filled with something that I have never seen before I believe it can happen and that's what I'm pursuing and the great thing is I believe I'm finally starting to experience that and have peace and have peace and go Kosh this feels like Scripture but that's what

Channel: Crazy Love

Views: 11,730

Rating: 4.9641256 out of 5

Keywords: Francis Chan, sermon, church, GOD, Jesus, Crazy Love, Crazy, Love

Id: E_ouxUu-qmo

Length: 49min 32sec (2972 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 19 2015