Here right now to hear Francis Chan and we are extremely blessed that in his busy
schedule he would take the time to be with us.
He's leaving here immediately. His plans have changed. Where he was flying home to
San Francisco, he'll be flying instead to New York City to be interviewed tomorrow
by Mike Huckabee, and then he flies home to preach Sunday morning.
So, my friend, would you come up and we'll pray, and let you have this place.
Father in Heaven, you see this man and he is a shell until you set right inside of
him. You know his heart desires to say bigger things than he is and the size of
things that you are. And God, not only does he want to say them but we want to
hear them, and you're going to have to give all of us help to get that done.
And we can't wait to see you do it as we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Oh, man. Amen.
That is everything I'm praying for right now. Everything, Terry.
I believe that was an anointed prayer.
I believe what Dusty just shared came from God. I don't want to interrupt that.
I want to move along and say this is Part 3 to what you just heard.
I don't want to take us in a different direction because I believe God spoke to
me through you, Dusty, through Randy. I'm sitting there going "Lord, this is
something bigger than what I expected". I really believe exactly what Terry was
just praying, that God wants to do bigger things than just the message I have.
You know, and I believe sovereignly, I left my notes over there.
You know, I just realised, I got so into what you were saying and what the spirit
was doing that I'm just going, "You know there's something going on here and I want
to have the courage to say what I need to say, and what I believe the Lord has laid
on my heart". When you talk about, man, that illustration about the swimming pool,
and jumping into the deep end. I believe that's what God is calling me to do.
Again, by the way, amazing illustration, I am going to steal it.
Pretend I made it up, you know. No, because I was that same kid, you know.
I wanted to stay in the shallow end. I wanted to be where I know I could put
my feet down. I didn't want to, you know, yeah, I wouldn't go. I was the same kid.
I would jump off the diving board, and yet I see in my relationship with God the
times I did. The times I just dove off the deep end because I knew what the Word of
God promised. Despite what anyone else said, I knew what this book said.
And it was on biblical convictions, not on tradition, not just on stuff that I was
taught. When I was alone with the Word of God and I would see something, there I go,
"No, God is going to come through for me, I can seek the things of God first. I can
seek the Kingdom first, and everything else will be taken care of. He promises me
that, so if I don't take a risk on that, how do I even know there's a resurrection?
You know, I've got to trust every bit of God's word". In the times, I've taken
those leaps off the diving board, off the high dive in the deep end because of a
biblical conviction. Those, I'm not talking about risk just to risk.
I'm talking about risk because you're so convicted by the Word of God.
You know, a lot of times in Church, we almost like convicting messages, and
walking away feeling convicted. I'm here to tell tell you that is not success.
I used to, when I first started preaching, man, I would just lay it out. I believe
I still do, but I would just teach the Word of God and if people got angry and
walked away, you know, sad. I would be like, "Yeah! Showed you!" You know, I had
people walking out of the sermon as I was speaking, and there was a sense of pride.
You know, and later on I realised, man, a lot of them were not offended by God's
Word, they were offended by me and my lack of love and the presentation.
And I just...
there's so many thoughts running through my head right now, again, just so much I
want to say in this brief time, but I...
The point I was getting at is, I used to think that maybe the goal of preaching
was just saying it and letting people walk away sad,
and it's only the last few years that God has shown me that
the goal is not for everyone to walk away crying.
I mean, where do you see in scripture Jesus teaching and the people
walking away sad and that being success?
Now, we see that, like in the rich, young ruler, right?
Jesus speaks to the rich, young ruler, you know, who has this
self-righteousness and you know, "I've done all these good things," you know,
"I want to go to heaven," you know, on and on and on, but it says
when Jesus says, "Sell all your possessions and give it to the poor,"
it says in, I'm sorry I can't read, verse, chapter 18 of Luke
verse 23, it says, "When he heard these things, he became very sad,
for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said
'How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person
to enter the kingdom of God.'
Those who heard it said, 'Then who can be saved?' but he says 'What's impossible
with men, is possible with God."
So the rich, young ruler walked away sad, right? Jesus gave
him a message. It was too much for him to take in. He's like, "I don't know if I
want to jump in the deep end. I don't know, I've got a lot of stuff. I kind of
want to play it safe, just in case you don't come through. I want to make
sure I can keep all these riches and everything else.
I want to play it safe," and he walks away sad because he couldn't walk away
from the stuff, and Jesus doesn't go, "Yeah! Look at him. I did it. I made him
sad!" No, he just looks at him, and I believe it was a tone of,
"(sigh) It's so hard, it's so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of
heaven! It's so hard for guys like that.
It would be easier for me to cram that camel over there through the eye
of this needle than for that guy to enter the kingdom of heaven."
It was a sad moment, but what I love is you know, the disciples are like,
"Then how can anyone get saved?"
He goes, "Hey, it's possible with God.
You know, with men it's not possible, but with God it is,"
and what's great is that in the very next chapter,
in Luke chapter 19, it says he entered Jericho, and was passing through
and there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
So in the very next chapter, you have this rich man, and you know the story.
He's in the tree, sees Jesus. Jesus says, "Come on, I want to go to your house.
I want to eat at your house."
He jumps out of that tree, gets so excited, throws this party.
Man, I've got Jesus here. He makes this grand announcement in front of
everyone. He goes, "Look, everything I have , I'm going to give half of it,
I'm just going to give it away to the poor right now.
And with the other half, I have ripped off, I have stolen from a lot
of you. I'll give you four times whatever I stole from you."
And what does Jesus say?
"Today, salvation has come to this house."
Why, there was a repentance right there. See, that was the joy.
That's what God wants, is this repentance that leads to life, right?
Godly sorrow, 2 Corinthians. You know, godly sorrow leads to repentance,
but there's a worldly sorrow that leads to death.
There's a godly sorrow, that leads to repentance, which leads to life,
not walking away sad. We walk away sad when we're not willing to change.
We walk away like Zacchaeus when we realize the truth and we actually do
something.
We actually repent. We don't sit week after week, year after year,
being hearers of the Word and not doers of it, but we hear the Word
of God, and like Dusty was saying, we look at those dreams,
we look at those biblical convictions and go, "I'm going to change.
I'm going to do it," and we become like Zacchaeus, or you can chose today
to walk away sad, but I'm just telling you, look, that is not the goal
and we don't want to be hearers of the Word and not doers.
I mean, for our own good.
I believe that Satan is thrilled with a lot of our church services.
I believe the enemy loves it, because Satan is the great deceiver,
and James says, "When you hear the Word and you don't do it, you are deceiving
yourself."
And so Satan's sitting back going, "Look at these guys! They gather on
Sunday morning to hear a message they're not going to apply.
They're deceiving themselves. My job is done.
Man, I hope this country is filled with church. I hope they fill them all
up and preach the Word of God but no one does it."
That would be Satan's dream, because they could just deceive themselves, and
he doesn't even have to do anything.
Our God is a God of repentance, of actual change, of turning.
It's not hearing the Word of God and not do anything about it.
Man, Isaiah 6, you know, one of the passages that changed my life,
Isaiah 6, that you both preach from, was one of the passages that changed my life
because it got me thinking about, wow, here's this prophet of God, a prophet
of God, and yet the moment he saw God, he just says, "I am dead.
Woe is me, woe is me." Those words, 'woe is me' in the Hebrew is