Francis Chan - The Millennial Generation and the Future of the Church

yeah I'm a Francis I live here and I've got seven children one grandchild so one one married daughter now the ones getting married in December and so I have kids your age and I'm sitting there thinking gosh how would I speak to my kids what would I share with them and and one of the benefits of being older is you see how things pan out years later right those of us who are older in this room there's like a couple of you but you have the benefit of going man this seems so exciting and then 20 years later going oh that was the fruit of that that was the result of something I thought was so great you just get to see that the seasons and there's something about having your grandchild and and then the daughter that you saw her born and then now she's giving birth and you you just kind of see this flow and meanwhile as a pastor and when you stay put you know at least I did for those 16 years you you just see life and you see people and you and you and you see what happens depending on sometimes your actions and let's be honest this it's a it's a it's a tough week for me I did not want to be here today on Wednesday one of my friends who helped me start the church 20 17 years ago 25 years ago I was the best man in his wedding he was one of my groomsmen LAPD guy you know Wednesday he killed himself and you I'm there at the mortuary over his body just a couple days ago with his wife and kids you know when you live life long enough you start seeing horrible things and and you start to see how important depth is in a person and I think you mentioned like a shallow surface II type of Christianity that really isn't Christianity it wasn't too long ago that we had someone in our congregation here who left our congregation angry at the leadership and then months later murders his grandmother he heads her believing there were demons inside of her just you're seeing these deep gross demonic things happening in the enemy just getting ahold of people and then I look back at all the cool things we did as a church back in the day in the back in the youth group to get people to come and thousands of people showing up and what what I want to say to you guys is just be so careful you can get caught up in just the way things are done right now well everyone does this so we're gonna do it and and you're old you don't know how to reach this generation and that that's the way we all thought even back then like you know like like this is the way we're gonna get the people in and we're gonna get this celebrity to talk and we're gonna get this person because he has so many followers and he's gonna speak and that's really gonna grab people as hard if we get someone famous or we get someone brilliant at this this is this and let's do Church this way because this will grab more people and get more people here and and we just didn't we didn't I didn't take the time to really look deeply in the word and not be tainted by the world and go how did Jesus do it what did he care about what was most important to him and to speak directly to people you know I was thinking how how two weeks ago I got a text from my buddy's wife said you know hey can you talk to him sometime something's going on and then a text later like no don't talk to him man if I say anything and so I don't and you know so I'm wrestling with all these things like I should've just said I should have said this and and as I'm listening to you guys speaking and and you know this is supposed to be about the future of the church you know it's just so much easier to kind of nuance everything just perfectly just beautifully and and and you know keep your followers going and and keep everyone happy with you and not be offensive but then in the end up in these situations where you go one and I say something I knew that guy there you know I'm not telling everybody I'm just thinking other situations where you knew something was wrong and why didn't you say something why don't you shoot straight this is the generation that is obsessed with popularity and you can't be popular and be a prophet you can be a false prophet I mean Jesus says woe to you when all men speak well of you because that's how they treated the false prophets but blessed are you when people hate you you know when they accused you falsely because that's the way they treat the Prophet we just got done reading the Book of Jeremiah in our church read through the Book of Jeremiah man where he's just saying they're going in everywhere literally everyone hates me yet even the church we value people by the number of followers you want to invite Jeremiah to this you know it have any followers and yet you read the things this guy had to say and I read your that's one of my favorite books of the Bible now I love it the depth and I say this because I believe very much that Jesus had a pattern of how we lived his life and how he dug deep in people's lives he had people following him around 24/7 there was a life of sacrifice as a lack a life of suffering he could have very easily been loved if he wasn't truthful when I look in this book in fact this year as I read through the Bible every year whole church does but I've been highlighting every time there's a verse about judgment I'll highlight it in pink and then every time there's a promise of blessing I'll highlight it in blue and as I'm going through the Bible and like 2/3 through right now there's a lot more pink than blue and yet why is it that we rarely hear sermons about judgment if over half the Bible is this and I one of the things I would challenge you guys to is how much of your speaking and teaching is on God's judgment and the difficult things to say because it's hard to gain a lot of followers if you say the difficult things and I think these are some of the things we shy away from we even try to make every funeral as beautiful and every funeral you go to oh he's in a better place is that what you get from Scripture I was reading this morning this morning's reading was from Ezra five and six in second Corinthians chapter four and in 2nd Corinthians chapter four and verse two he says we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God and even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God for what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake for God said for for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ I just kept staring at this this morning because I was thinking okay he says we refuse to practice cunning like what does that mean like he goes man I just refuse to like you use this clever sometimes that word could mean deceitful but it is just I I just refuse to do that he says instead I'm not gonna tamper o God's Word but by the open statement of truth because I'm just gonna say it I'm not gonna try to say it in the way that it's gonna please you I'm not gonna you know just wrap it up with this nice bow so that it's palatable to you I'm just going to say it why he says because if you don't get it it's because your veiled it's because you're blinded and at least this is what the Bible says he says it's it's because the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers and so when we say okay how do you reach this millennial generation we've got dude in a millennial no it's just an open statement of truth there's not a cunning way to do it you just say it and everything depends on what you were talking about the prayer that's gone into this how do you get the blinders off an unbeliever when it says the god of this world has blinded the mind of it to keep them from seeing it it says later it says God who says lit lines light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ something supernatural something miraculous happened where God Himself you can't do this John 10 I think it's 66 ish I is it that long of a book okay I might be wrong it might be it's John 10 I know that I'm gonna look it up so I'm not making something up it's not 66 there's no such thing I said 36 nope okay is it even John no it's John 6 that's why okay sorry I was like John 10 is not that John 6 that's not the first either all right somewhere in the New Testament wait one more 63 yes oh good okay John 6:63 it is the spirit who gives life the flesh is no help at all the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life okay Jesus says it is the spirit that gives life the flesh is of no help at all Paul and second Corinthians says look I'm not going to try to use cunning to do this I'm just gonna lay it out because if you don't get it it's because your heart is blinded by Satan and God needs to shine a light in there there's nothing I can do by my speech that's why in fact he says in first Corinthians 2 he says I resolve to know nothing except the cross and him and you know accept Christ and him crucified because I don't want to diminish the cross of its power see whenever we use cleverness whenever we think we're going to reach this generation by doing this this this this or some clever way rather than pray or fasting in the Word of God himself and the Holy Spirit filled person speaking he says then we're actually going to diminish it it's actually going to make it worse positive is a way I can diminish the cross of its power and that's when I rely on my own eloquence or superior wisdom I think I have a way to reach this generation and what I've learned over the years it's the same thing that reaches every generation X Y Z it doesn't matter it's the Word of God and the reason why they reject it is because they are literally blinded and our battle is not against flesh and blood and we could waste a lot of time coming up with and arguing about what's the best fleshly strategy and that's why I've been so passionate the church and this oneness that needs to take place in this church I mean we're not and you know earlier you mentioned okay he's in this house Church Reformation it's it's not bad I mean it you can have a crappy house Church it doesn't matter where you meet it's about these principles of when we are together what is it like a we are we are we walking away deeply in love with Jesus the person of Jesus are we truly deeply in love with one another because Jesus says if we become perfectly one he says that'll work if you become perfectly one then the world will believe that I was sent by the father then I was loved by the father you're loved by the father it's when you become perfectly one and so we're just trying to gather together okay let's let's make sure that that we're falling deeply in love with him deeply in love with one another because he says that's what's gonna reach and the power is in this book and this word and it's not about a clever sermon so we really even have sermons she's like everyone is reading the Word of God cuz you want them alone with God or fellowshipping over the word daily and so I can tell you everyone read as refis five and six today everyone rests and Corinthians four so I can get together with anyone go man what do you think about this like man if we weren't trying to be too clever is there kind of you know and look at as four five and six today was insane I mean that's when when King Darius takes over you know some when they told me you can't build the temple and then suddenly you know the king saying no yeah you can build the temple in fact we're gonna pay for it how does that stuff happen again it's all supernatural there's something else going on I was struck a couple weeks ago when we're reading the book of Job and that's just that weird book it is a weird book you have the story of Satan talking to God right and God's gonna hey where you been and he's as well as walk around the earth house did you see job goes yeah you know they're having this conversation up here right and so all these things start happening and what do you have you've got job and it's three friends they're down on earth and they're just going back and forth because these are like the wisest people on the earth right those wisest people on the earth have no clue they're not even close they're not even close to figuring it out there's this real spiritual thing going on this is the reality of what's going on and they're talking down at this level going well I think it's this no I think it's this and they're arguing with each other and they're all missing it and God gets angry at them at the end and I'm thinking if they live today we would podcast them they'd have so many followers and yet they're all off I know some kind I don't want to be one of those voices god I don't want to be one of those voices and I have been I've said a lot of things in confidence that were wrong now as I was talking to these guys earlier before you know I was like gosh I remember when I was young they wouldn't let me talk and that was so wise of them you know and my youth faster is like yeah you know what I know you think you have a gift of teaching but you know go clean the toilets go to I mean literally clean the bathrooms after youth group pick up the chairs you know stack them up vacuum the place all right all right eventually it's like okay you can disciple the freshman guys and I want you to treat them like they're your children and you just love them and you disciple them you walk with them and yeah you know and I told him about how I was at this conference I was speaking and there was his other speaker that I really respected this guy Steve Farrar and he had written this book called point man he heard me speak he goes you've got to write a book you need to write a book can you send me you know stuff you've written out like I haven't really written anything goes well these sermons you just gave get send me those and I want to get you to a publisher I want you to write and so I send him all this stuff I never hear back and then I run into a few years later and he said go away Frances I'm like he goes oh you know what I never got back to you I go yeah I know and he goes you know why he goes I found out your age you're only 30 because no one should write a book till they're 40 because you're gonna be embarrassed of what you wrote and I thought whoa all right and I didn't write crazy left till I was 40 I seriously waited because I thought there's I'm just gonna trust this older man it's not what I think I'm just in trust this older guy and I look back go oh so glad I didn't write anything back then it's just there's just I don't know why I brought all that up I guess the whole point I'm I'm just want to say I I just want to say is I got caught up in a lot of stuff the way people did church and went to church and I just assumed well everyone goes to a building and listens to a 40 minute sermon and sings for half an hour is that what I found in the Bible or is that just what everyone's doing what do I find in the Bible and again I don't want you guys and your generation and be like well our generation you know everything's online and so this is what we did it okay and you get caught up in that and well this is the way we influence people and I'm just going now this is this is the way this is what the Word of God says there's some really simple things that are very difficult to do and it was all our cleverness that got us to where we are today where people are far more excited about the next worship leader the next speaker and you rarely hear someone talking about being in the presence of Jesus himself and just shuttering and then crying and just going this is amazing Lord rarely do you hear people truly from their heart and and you where you can see it in their face like where they go I just want to know Christ I want to know the power of his resurrection I just want to know the Fellowship of his suffering I mean for me to live it's just this this Christ I want more of him him him I don't hear people talking like that it's because we found clever ways to do ministry and honestly then the people who discipled us and we it's great that you're talking about discipleship the key is who's doing the disciple someone where you look at them and go here is a guy that is deeply in love with Jesus he loved you can just tell I mean we can tell you can tell when someone's in love with his wife right or he's just talks and says the right things you can tell when someone is obsessed with their child right and in the same way you can tell when they're not so into their wives you can tell when they're out really into their kids as far as loving them they may like what they do or this or that but you you can just we know how to spot true love and I'm gonna win the last time you just spotted someone go he really loves the person of Jesus like the person of God like he can't get enough of him even with church leaders we're not looking for that anymore we want someone that can fill a room and has that gift of you know speaking or leadership or or something to move this drive this thing forward and to even think is he a lover of Christ because he's going to be making disciples we all make disciples whether we try to or not there's a question is what kind of disciples are we making as people see our example what it was it look like that's my concern for this next generation is I mean some of you guys have a voice at a young age and you can argue that it's god-given or you can argue that you pursued that a lot of people have a voice and I would just say it be careful because there's a depth that takes time it's like a foundation and you can build this building bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger but if that foundation wasn't cured and wasn't right the bigger you build this building the heart is gonna crash and the more people are gonna fall and I've seen this over and over and over again that foundation of a person's character and depth of walk with the Lord and depth of humility was not there yet they kept building building building building and then when it falls it takes a lot of people down with him and so I would just say man I know you're living in a generation that's like get-rich-quick get big quick it's famous quick I just don't see that in the scriptures it takes time it takes pain takes failure and and a big platform isn't always the best thing or the wisest thing unless you're that sure of your own character you

Channel: Crazy Love

Views: 253,434

Keywords: Francis Chan, Crazy Love, Millenials, Church, JESUS, CHRIST, Jesus Christ, GOD, NINES Conference, Leadership Network

Id: ZOuU734ZTZc

Length: 26min 35sec (1595 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 12 2019