| PassionThe Passion Conference was really good. By really good, I mean that it was convicting, that God was glorified, and that I want to glorify God more after the conference. It's cool having 3 of the most well known worship leaders of the modern Christian era leading worship (Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman), but what was even cooler was the sermons, and the convictions that God worked through them. Couple thoughts that I had...
To Be a Fruitcake
Do I really live my life differently than any other person? Do I glorify God with my life? I came to a pretty reluctant no answer to both of those questions.
Louie Giglio, one of the speakers and the leader of Passion, spoke about a girl who really did make a difference in the way that she lived. Her roommate, Ashley, who was not a believer, had just broken up with her live-in boyfriend because she had caught him cheating on her. As a result, she needed a new roommate and found Christa. Ashley was pretty anti-Christian as she had grown up being forced to go to church, and found Christians judgemental. When she found out Christa was a Christian..."what a fruitcake".
God used Christa to show unconditional love. The love that picks us up when we're hurting or when we're rejoicing. Christa shared with Ashley about the Passion conference she had just attended, and what she had learned there about being different and showing God's love. Ashley saw that love, and wanted it for herself. Through the midst of the crap she was going through, she accepted Christ because she saw that Christians were different. A fruitcake had made a difference.
How Louie knew this whole story...Ashley wrote to Louie after she became Christian and they began a correspondence. Ashley died last May in a car crash the day before her graduation. Ashley's mom wrote to Louie to tell him, and to thank him for being a light for Ashley. Ashley's dad (mom is remarried, so I mean birth dad) is atheist, and now because of Louie's influence on Ashley's life, has begun corresponding with Louie. He is not Christian, but the prayers are that he will see God and accept God. Louie told us this story from Ashley's viewpoint...her dad sent Louie Ashley's journal (which refers to Christa as "fruitcake" throughout the whole thing).
The story is told here: http://268blog.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
Conviction: To be a fruitcake (be different in a way that others can see)
God is not a beggar
This idea hit hard. Though God loves us, wants us, pursues us...he does not beg for our attention. A lukewarm heart for God is tossed out. God is bigger than begging for our attention, and deserves much better than that. If I want God, I have to pursue Him and give Him my best.
Luke 8:5-15 is there parable of the sower where a sower sows his seed. Some falls on good ground, some on rocky soil, others eaten, etc. Francis Chan, the speaker, explained how strange this parable really is. A large crowd gathers to listen to Jesus, and he talks about a sower? That probably wasn't the answer or story that people were looking for. However, this parable is explained in verses 10-15 for what it means when the disciples ask Jesus to clarify. However, Jesus expalins that the disciples understand the parable because it has been granted to them to know the mysteries of God. To the rest of the people who don't seek God, the parables are spoken so that "they may not see, and hearing them they may not understand". If we do not pursue God, we are not meant to understand.
Conviction: to pursue God hard
How can God let _________ happen?
It seems hard sometimes to justify God when "bad things" happen. Hurricane Katrina. 9/11. Child sex slavery. How or why does God allow these things to happen?
Perspective shift. God has allowed his SON to die. For you. For me. Heck, I wouldn't even be able to sacrifice anybody from my youth group to save anybody else. God has already been through the worst thing possible that can happen to anybody. He watched his own son die. To understand tragedy...look at the cross first. God allowed his son to die, which was the worst that could happen to him. The purpose? To save all of us. Why does God let these tragedies happen? I don't know for sure...but God has been through the worst and I trust he has something good planned with it.
A botched sermon?
I must say, one of the strangest, best sermons that I have seen/heard. Before Francis Chan came out for this sermon, Louie was talking about Pattaya, Thailand, and how there's over 30,000 prostitutes there over the age of 18. This does not take into account all those under the age of 18. Francis comes out with his daughter, Rachel. Introduces her, sends her back. He then threw out the sermon that he had planned. He explained that he was thinking, that if it were his daughter Rachel that was one of those child sex slaves in Thailand, would he be just standing there giving us a sermon?
He would be telling us, urging us, and getting us to go do something about it. I thought about it for myself...I don't do something about it a lot of times because I simply don't love enough. I don't love what God loves, I don't care about what God cares about. I care most for myself and my comfort. If it were someone that I loved in that situation, I would go do something about it.
Since this was an unplanned sermon, Francis had called out Louie towards the end to help him close. He ended with..."AND YOU SHOULD LOVE! AND YOU SHOULD...I'm just going to leave now". And he walked offstage.
Conviction: To do something about it
If you have any questions, let me know.
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