How the Great Imbalance Changes How We Live Our Life

The following is a lightly edited transcript provided by a transcription service. Please check the video before quoting.

Crazy Love

Francis Chan

Alright, well we decided we’re just going to get up here together and see how the spirit leads us. We’ve never done this before, but that’s, we’re just going to trust the spirit. We’ve both been in the word, we’ve both believed God’s put thoughts in our minds.

We’ve been friends for years. Actually, it started right after you wrote Radical, when you copied Crazy Love and he just gave it an orange cover.

David Platt

All right, To clarify, I had written this book Radical and my wife was reading Crazy Love and she was like, did you copy Francis?

I was like, I haven’t even read, I don’t know Francis. I haven’t read What Francis. She was like, well it sounds like you copied him. And so anyway, we met soon after that.

Francis Chan

Yeah, We met at a passion conference and it was immediately we just hit it off and I was saying, what’s the Lord putting on your heart? And he goes, I feel like the Lord wants me to create this discipleship material and discipleship has to be at the center of the church.

I’m like, that’s the same thing that’s been on my heart and I was working on the same thing and we’re like, well, why don’t we just do this together and make one resource because if we can’t partner how similar we are theologically and everything else, then what hope is there for unity in the church?

And so I feel like this is a little bit of an extension of that as we’ve both grown and maybe even differed in more views lately.

David Platt

We could list them.

Francis Chan

Yes, right now. We could just debate about ’em right now in front of you.

David Platt

But that’s what I would just say a couple things. One, I was just thanking God this morning for this brother. He loves Jesus and every time I’m around him I love Jesus more as a result of being around him.

We just were spending time together yesterday and I’m just so thankful, but I just want to make the connection with what he just said. We don’t agree on how to understand every text here, that we are rock solid in our unity around Jesus and the gospel and the authority of this word, but there’s a depth of community and family that’s found.

Romans 14:15 talks about this when we even have some differences on things and we live in a world that polarizes and divides and I know that’s part of our heart as the overflow of friendship. We want to see the body of Christ loving each other.

That’s where I was John 13 this morning in my time with him. This is how the world will know that we’re disciples when we love each other, not when we agree on everything.

Yes, the core, the gospel and the authority of God’s word, but there’s just a depth of friendship that’s found even amidst those differences that I hope even us doing this together, I guess an encouragement to cultivate community, deep community with people who are not exactly like you in every single way.

The Word of God

Francis Chan

Yeah, there’s a level of trust that I have in David and I have ever since I’ve met him. I just know he’s going to teach the word of God. He’s not going to deviate from the word of God. We may look at a certain passage and have disagreements on how to interpret that best and how we see that in the context of the whole of scripture.

But that doesn’t diminish. I just go, he loves the word of God and he is going to seek this and he’s going to seek the Lord. And I don’t question whether he’ll sacrifice whatever he needs to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. You weren’t here last night, but right before I spoke, a lady came up and shared, and she’s from Turkey and she’s talking about forgiveness and her husband was martyred for the gospel and just the heaviness in that walking up.

Spreading the Word of God

You feel a little shallow after following someone like that. But I think we both resonate with that type of person that we want to be that just says, look, this book is worth it. It’s worth it. As much as we love our family, our kids like to die in the name of Jesus and come into glory that way as terrifying in some ways as it is, we also know it’s an honor and go, no, there would be absolutely no regrets for all of eternity.

And so that’s the bond we have in the word in life in Christ. And there’s not enough of that. We’re so quick. Even this morning, if anyone sees this, there’ll be people who see this video and they’ll cancel you because you were with me and some will cancel me. I was with you. I mean that’s the world we live in and I’m not going to name why, but there there’s reasons because they’re ridiculous and you’re not getting many pictures.

The Cost of Unity

So I guess my point is there’s a cost with unity. Unity is not, oh, I had a thousand friends and now I became friends with David Platt, so I have 1,001. No, I’ll have like 801 because I’ll probably lose like 200 of the friends I used to have.

That’s the world we live in. And you have to decide, am I going to take the scriptures literally, am I going to tremble at his word where he says, because the spirit of God is in David Platt, then Christ wants me to love him in the same way that Christ loved the church.

And there’s a oneness that we can have that is similar to the oneness of the Father and the Son and he wants us to pursue that. It says it’s when that happens that the world will believe we are affecting. I believe even us doing this and saying these things which we didn’t plan, I believe affects the mission field because it’s the reputation and it’s a picture of the church that oneness makes the gospel believable.

Why did Christ Die?

And this is not something that at all was in my mind when I was your age, a belief that unity in the body was necessary. It was one of those cute add-ons rather than really understanding what Ephesians says, this is what Christ died for, to make one new man and to create this bond between people through the blood of Christ that nothing would tear apart and that was going to be what would cause a believability to our message.

So we may think, oh, we’re just giving a message together here in La Morada. This has nothing to do with anything overseas. I believe it does. I also believe like Psalm 1 33 says how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. But then later in the chapter it says, for there God commands his blessing life forevermore. And something I’ve found in the last few years is when I partner, it’s not a competition and no one cares whose name, whatever.

God Wants Us to Fight as One

There are still some disagreements that we will probably talk through at some point, but the fact that we’re fighting for what we believe God wants us to fight for as one, that God commands a blessing on that.

And so when we were hanging out yesterday, I mean we’re just going to look, our goal is that God would bless this time that the grace of God would fall upon this place. That’s why we spent some time beforehand just humbling ourselves because God gives grace to the humble.

And so how can we have that humble and contrite heart so that you’ll be blessed like it’s for your sake, how can we be perfectly unified so that God would command a blessing and life upon this gathering? So that’s the heart behind a lot of

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

David Platt

This and I trust you know this, but just to make sure you’re seeing it, that’s straight from Jesus. John 17, just look at it. If you have a Bible, just make sure you hear this coming, not from Francis Chan or me, but see it. This is straight from Jesus, John 17, what he prayed right before he went to the cross.

So he’s just finished washing his disciple’s feet, serving them, loving them, and then he starts to pray. And how does he end that prayer? He prays for us in this room. He’s been praying for his disciples. Then in verse 20 he says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That’s us, which just pauses.

We Have Salvation

We are those who believe in Jesus through the word that started with these disciples and disciples after them and disciples after them and disciples after them. Praise God that we have salvation in this room because of disciples who made disciples among the nations through their word that they’ve passed on at the risk of their lives.

And throughout history, many people have died. So we would have this word. So as we talk about taking the gospel of the nations over these days, make sure to make the connection. It’s not like we’re starting something, we’re continuing something that has been done and we’re the fruit of what has been done.

And there are 3 billion people who don’t have this word right now. They don’t have access to it. So just make the connection that there would be more people who believe through your word, through your word that started with their word.

Unity in the Body of Christ

So I wasn’t even planning on talking about that. But then you get to verse 21. So this is what we were just talking about, but make the connection that they may all be one just as you Father are in me and I in you.

That’s Jesus just praying for a Trinitarian type oneness that we would experience together just as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, that they may be in us that we may share in the life of the Father and the Son.

So that purpose clause, so that the world may believe that you’ve sent me, this is something that is so heavy on Francis’ heart, my heart, our lack of unity in the body of Christ is hindering our ability to spread the gospel of Christ to the world. There’s a direct relationship between unity in the body and the spread of the gospel.

Spreading the Gospel

And so if we just talk about the spread of the gospel in the world and we bypass the need for unity like a unified, what was happening last night seeking after God together is throne together, clinging to the gospel, holding tightly to that which is primary loosely to things that are secondary or tertiary. And we do that.

That will lead to the spread of the gospel in the world, which means we have to turn away from the polarization in our culture, the politicization, politicization of the church in so many different ways just for us to say we just want Jesus together. As we were gathered together with students in the back of praying, it was just so encouraged by the students who are helping lead this picture just saying, we just want you, Jesus.

We just want you to want your word. May that be the spirit on this campus in a way that will lead to the spread of the gospel from this campus so that the world may see that the Father has sinned the Son.

And that’s part of why Francis and I are here and why we were looking forward not just to doing this together, but to being here because we see in the next generation a desire for that kind of unity, a dissatisfaction with disunity in the church and a longing to experience the depth of unity that Jesus prayed for us so that the world might know who he is and how he’s been sent by the Father.

A Conversation between God and God

Francis Chan

And a couple of things I want to say about that passage too is to understand this is not hyperbole. This is not an exaggeration to me, John 17 when we’re in seminary, we learn that you’ve got to know what you’re reading. You have to understand what’s prophetic, what’s poetry, what’s an epistle. But John 17 is so unique to me. I almost feel like it deserves its own category because it’s the son talking to the Father. It’s like we’re listening to a conversation between God and God.

That’s what we’re listening to here. If there’s ever a truth, obviously this is all absolute, but we’re talking about the son talking to the Father, what do they talk about? And this is what he talks about. Jesus is going, I want them to be in us. So what we talked about last night, the idea of, wait a second, you are telling me he’s an all-consuming fire. If I see a halt, an all-consuming fire, my first thought is not to let me run into it. And yet that’s exactly what God is asking us to do.

We are in Awe of Christ

He’s saying, I want them in us. Jesus said, I want them to be in us just like I’m in you how we’re perfectly wanted. I want them in us. And so the idea is as I approach that fire, that gloom, that tempest, that innumerable angels in festival gathering, and I come to that throne and I am in God, I’m like, what am I doing here only by the blood of Christ?

And then suddenly I see David and we’re just like, what are we doing here? You and I as sinners enemies of God because of Christ, now we are abiding in him forever. There ought to be this mutual awe and reverence where we’re going.

This is unreal what God has done for us. And this is at the core. It’s not saying, Hey, just get along. It’s saying, Hey, come be a part of us. Abide in us, abide in me and I’ll abide in you. And that’s what creates the unity is this awe over what Christ has done. And that’s why these other things we don’t, the last thing I think about is dividing from you. Yeah,

The Son Loves You

David Platt

Well and to continue making that connection. And this is one of the things somebody was praying in the back just two chapters before this, if you turn so just see it. It’s coming straight from God. John chapter 15 verse nine.

This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. And so make the connection with, I assume most were here last night, the throne of grace and what Francis was just picturing us together, not just him and me, all who are in Christ as the father has loved me.

So have I loved you. Would you just let that soak in for a minute? Especially anybody today who feels unworthy, who feels dirty, who feels guilty, who feels shame as the Father loves the son, the son loves you.

Infinite Love

Just picture, how much the Father loves the Son, infinite love, otherworldly, supernatural, indescribable that just feel this where you’re sitting right now. This is how much the son loves you. He loves you so much, the throne of grace. So here’s the command. This is a great command. All the commands are great. Abide in my love.

God is telling us right now in his word, live today in my love for you. Just live in it. And then now to make sense. If Francis is living in the love of God for him, that he’s overwhelmed by the throne of grace and mercy that he’s received from God and I’m doing the same, then we’re now free to love each other with otherworldly love, with a supernatural love that the Father has for the Son that the son shows to us. We now share with each other.

Being a Part of the Body of Christ

This is so awesome to be a part of the body of Christ. There is no other community like it in the world. Do not be casual toward the church. Don’t be complacent toward the church. Lean fully into this unique otherworldly community and don’t settle for anything less than the fullness of God’s love experience than that kind of community which involves humility, a willingness to bear with each other that involves a willingness to forgive each other, to encourage and build each other up and lock arms together to show the world how much love God has shown to us and to invite them to be a part of it.

Francis Chan

Ephesians four, it says that I therefore prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called with all humility, with all humility and gentleness, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. One body, One spirit. \

So it’s this idea that to live in a way that’s worthy of our calling is to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We’ve got to be eager for this, okay? We’ve got to be eager to be one our faith. Okay? Being a believer in our faith is a faith of attachment. Okay?

That’s what Ephesians four talks about, how it was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ being the cornerstone. And so you’ve got these saints who have been added to this one temple being joined together in Christ. And so I am attaching myself to this edifice, to this temple.

I’m like one block that’s going, wow, there’s been this building that’s been going on for thousands of years and now I get to join it. That’s why the enemy is trying to get us all to live so individually and to be so independent because Christ is ours, when you read Ephesians four, it’s that one body where we’re joining into this and too many of us have been growing.

Divorce Culture

We’ve all grown up in this divorce culture in the church where everyone’s just quick to leave. Most of you, all of you were part of a church that was a break-off from another church, and at some point, it was a division. And so we’re just so used to this. But I believe this is the generation that could see the commands of scripture and go, man, I’m done with this.

God wants one table that we all sit at and break of one bread as a father. I can’t imagine if my kids would not sit at the table with one another one day that would kill me. And that one table that’s supposed to unify us has actually become this source of division.

I believe that you really could make a difference because I believe your generation is more set on this than mine was. I almost put us in the same generation, not as old as you. Yes, exactly. You’re like my dad. I’m like your dad just glad to be at your table Pops.

Yes. But I really think you guys, I want to believe in the power of the spirit and it’s not, ultimately, this is the desire of God. I mean it’s pretty fascinating that Jesus is about to die and this is what he prays to the Father.

That’s fascinating to me. It shows me how dear to his heart this truth is that there’d be an oneness in us. It so it’s not just, I see it in a lot of you. I just go, no, I see this in the heart of God. And so he’s going to bring this to some sort of fruition. I’ve got to believe it. There’s got to be some coming together. And that’s a pretty awesome thought to think it could happen in your generation

We Come Together in Prayer

David Platt

And to think about, to see in this text, what Jesus is praying for is that it comes together when we’re focused on our Father, when we’re, we’re seeing the Father’s love for the Son, the Father’s glory, the son’s obedience to the Father when we’re focused on him, this is what draws us together.

So I pastor a church in metro DC which has just been ravaged by division over recent years in so many different ways. And it’s been a really hard few years just fighting for the unity of the body amidst all kinds of attacks and slander and division and just so many different things.

But lemme just give you a glimpse of God and his kindness over the last few weeks. We were in Isaiah 55 just a few Sundays ago, God saying, come to me all who are thirsty and drink from the water that I provide and repent of your sin.

The Throne of Grace and Holiness

Lay aside yourselves and come to me. Just an invitation, come to this throne of grace and holiness that you all were looking at last night in Hebrews. Our 11 o’clock gathering that day, which usually ends by about 1230, went till almost four o’clock in a way I’ve never experienced in my life on a Sunday and just people seeking God and praising him and praying, confessing sin.

And I was really hesitant to even stop it as we were approaching four. But I sensed, okay, I think it’s about time, but the next morning our pastors got together and we were like, we think we need to come together again tonight. Nobody’s planning on it right now.

I don’t know how many will come, but even if 20 people come, it’ll be awesome. 20 people seeking God. Or if more people come, that’ll be awesome. So awesome or awesome, we’ll go with that.

How do we Gather to Pray?

And so we just sent out words like, Hey, who wants to come together and pray tonight? Just send out an email that afternoon. And that night at seven 30, a lot more than 20 people showed up.

From seven 30 to about 10 or 1,030, we just pray, confess, sin, worship together, people confess addictions, couples where one spouse confesses to the other spouse in the gathering about adultery, sexual morals, just deep conviction of confession of sin and praying over each other. It got to be about 10 or 1,030.

And I was like, okay, do we keep going? I said, well, I think the only way we can stop now is if we say we’ll come back together tomorrow night. And so, we came together the next night and the next night, the next night, and just every night the spirit through the word leading us into prayer and just seeing people who we pray for on one night to come to Christ, come to Christ the next night.

People Praying for Each Other

I could tell you so many stories right now and people praying over each other. We had one point where somebody was sharing testimony. It was like a 21-year-old girl sharing testimony about how she had struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts.

And I just paused her. I was like, Hey, before we go any further, I just want to ask, is there anybody in the room who in this room struggles with depression or suicidal thoughts? And if you’d be so humble and bold to stand where you are and say, yeah, I struggle with that. We want to gather around and pray for you. And people all across the room stood up. So many people just gathered around the body of Christ praying for each other.

United Praying in God’s Grace

And so it’s continued to overflow into our Sunday morning gatherings and into other weeknight gatherings. And I mention all that because I was talking with this one person in our church family this last week and their remark was, that it just feels like now we’re experiencing family at a level that’s deeper than just sitting in a service next to some other people.

Like we’re praying for each other. We’re honestly confessing sin to each other. We’re praying God’s grace over each other, praying for our city, we’re praying for the nations together. This is what we’re made to do. And I share all that just to say, this is what happens when the Father is at the center of our affections when we’re humbling ourselves and seeking him.

This is what creates, as the Father loves the Son and the Son is in the Father, we’re invited into this relationship with him in a way that produces unity in the body and flows into the spread of the gospel around the world. So I would just encourage you, especially during these few days, set aside on this campus right now, to press into the Father,

Making the Connection is Critical to the Spread of Love

Don’t hold back from seeking him. And then as you do, looking around at others who are seeking it and being like, I cannot believe we get to do this together. And we’re brothers and sisters, we’re children at the table of our father and just there’s nothing in this world that compares with this. Nothing.

And I pray that there’s a growing hunger for the Father that leads to humility and unity in the body. And I pray that you experience that in your life in a way that so just to keep making the connection is critical to the spread of the love of the Father and the world.

Francis Chan

I want to share something that I’m trying to set aside where to go for this. Something that brings because it’s not, hey, everyone should just get along. It’s not like a worldly, everyone gets along because the Bible does talk about how there’s a time to divide.

And so this is not like we don’t care about theology, we don’t care about morality, but it’s the fact that we do care about God’s view of sin and God’s word. And we both tremble at it that we go, okay, let’s unite in this.

So we got to understand that I know David to be a man of the word of God and there’s a power to that. And Matthew 24 verse 12 says, in the last day, there’s going to be this increase in lawlessness. I think we’re all seeing that there’s going to be this increase in the world of people just throwing off the law of God. And it says because of that, the love of many will grow cold.

The Mount of Olives

So that’s going to happen. People are going to lawlessness and it’s those of us who refuse to do that. And he says they’ll endure. He goes, those are the ones that are going to be safe. So there’s that bond here of saying, Hey, I’m not going the direction of the world. I was recently in Israel and I go, oh, I have so much to say about that.

I could use eight chapels just to talk about Israel, but I won’t. But my son was going off to Africa. My daughter was going off to the Middle East and I thought, okay, I want one last time with them. This is my 18 and 17-year-old and we’re standing on the Mount of Olives. I want to take you to the holy land. I just want to show you around. And towards the end, we’re standing at the Mount of Olives.

I’m going, this is crazy. This is a real place. I want you to get this. This is not like Wakanda. This is like a real place you fly to because sometimes this can feel like make-believe. I’m like, no, we’re here. Jesus literally ascended from here and we’re looking back at Jerusalem.

Look right down there. You have to understand, that this is the same spot that Abraham took Isaac. This is the same spot where David took the ark. This is the same spot we were just in his palace where he saw Bathsheba. This is the same spot where Sawm built the temple.

We’re the second temple. This is where Jesus was crucified. There’s all of this history. We just walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel. We just walked through a 3000-year-old tunnel that you can read about right here in Chronicles, like all of this history and you’ll be tempted.

I was telling my kids to leave 6,000 years of history. People have passed this truth on for 6,000 years. And then your friend who’s 17 came up with a thought yesterday

Revelation in History

And you’re going to go with that because he’s your friend and he’s so wise. All those hours of Fortnite just got his mind with so much revelation that you’ll go, you know what? All the believers for 6,000 years and the morality they taught, was off.

And I was telling him, and I read to them, Psalm 81 verses 10 to 12, look at what it says. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice. Israel would not submit to me. So listen to this. I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels.

Listen to Other People’s Words

You see the punishment of I go look at what he’s saying. He says, Man, I was going to fill your mouth. I was going to give you all this, but you didn’t want to listen to the word of the God who said, let there be light. My words weren’t enough for you. He goes, so you know what I’m going to do? I’ll let you follow your own stubborn hearts and I’ll actually make you follow your own counsels.

This is how I’ll raise up a generation. You don’t want to listen to my word. I’ll start making you listen to other people’s words, human words, because you don’t tremble at my words and it’ll actually make sense to you where you’ll go, you know what? I follow this guy on Instagram because he’s a great athlete.

Oh, that makes sense. I care about what he thinks about morality because he can throw a ball really far that’s actually going to make sense to you. Or she had great plastic surgery done, so I’m going to follow her counsel and I’ll actually tremble at what she has to say. God is saying, you don’t want to listen to my words. I’ll make you listen to each other’s words

The Word of God has Held True for Thousands of Years

Because this is not a cool thing to do to latch onto these new thoughts from famous people and ditch because I go, yeah, your friends will say, I’m old fashioned. I’m still holding to that old book and I’m going, yes, I’m ancient. I’m holding onto truths that are 6,000 years old around these thoughts that just came out of your mind.

And I told my kids, I don’t care if everyone on earth right now believes something that is contrary to what is taught in this book. I’m not going to believe the most depressed, suicidal generation in history, even if they all agree on something, when the word of God has held true for all of these years, it came out of the mouth of God and I’m going to tremble it. I’m going to declare it and I’m not embarrassed by it.

Praise God for his Word and Spirit

David Platt

I praise God for his word and spirit. You were like, I don’t know where to go next. In my mind, my mind just went straight to Matthew 24 and the Mount of Olives, and you start talking about Matthew 24 and the number of olives just and being led astray by false prophets. And then yes, this picture in Psalm 81, can I just make this practical? Scrolling through this thing, it’s just being led astray. It’s all kinds of counsels.

It’s just endless messages and we’re addicted to it. Let’s just confess that before God, it’s one of the first things in these last few weeks in our church family, they’re just confessing addiction. This one person said I’m just addicted to my phone.

My impulse is to turn it on and look, my impulse is not to seek the face of God. My impulse is not to open your mouth wide and fill me with your word. My impulse is not to just ask the question, how much are you filling your mind with this word compared to how much you’re filling your mind with this world?

Just ask the question. This is a quantitative measurement. Look at your life. Look at the fruit of your life. How many

Spreading God’s Word

I’m guessing that for most people in this room, it’s filling our minds with hours from the world and maybe minutes from the world is that true in your life? And God right now is saying to us, I flip that script open. Widen your mouth. I have life for you. I have my people are not listening to my voice. May that not be said of us. Let’s listen to his voice.

Let’s meditate on his word. Memorize his word. Fill your mind with his word. That’s the word we’re commanded all over scripture, not just to read it, meditate on it, day and night, soak it in.

There are Muslims who’ve just begun Ramadan and many of them in the world by the time they are college-age, have memorized the whole Quran. They’ve memorized the whole thing. Why are they that committed to the words of a false God?

And we are not far more committed to the words of the one and only true God. So what does this need to look like in your life? Like God’s speaking right now to your heart, open mouth wide, your mouth, what do you need to start memorizing? Get together with some others. Let’s start memorizing a chapter, a book of the Bible together.

Let’s just open our mouths wide. I mean, I’m not saying the whole New Testament or the whole Testament at this point, just like starting with a chapter, a book. You say, well, I don’t memorize very well. I’ve got so many studies, this, that, and I know different people have different capacities to memorize, and our minds work in different ways.

But Psalm one 19 says, the law of the Lord is worth more than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Wow. So well, let me ask this. What if I were to say, I’ll give you a thousand dollars for every verse you can memorize between now and next week? I’m guessing your ability to memorize would grow.

You’d be like, oh, okay. I think Jesus swept, boom, a thousand grand, just one grand right there. And you’re just like, I mean, you do it. Okay, so maybe that’s the question, not can we memorize The question is what’s more important to us? Money in this world or the word of our God? Amen. What’s more important

To eyes open wise, your mouth. He wants to fill it with life. That’s so much better than the world.

The Great Imbalance

Francis Chan

Amen. On January 1st, I was talking to my daughter, she’s 18, she was in the Middle East, and I hadn’t seen her in a few months, she was just saying how her group there in the Middle East was just challenging each other.

She goes, I’m starting a 30-day challenge. We’re going to read through the Bible in 30 days. I thought, wow, that’s really cool, honey, I’ve never done that. In 30 days I’ll join you and I’m super competitive. So I finished in 14 and texted her, Hey, where are you?

But I say that because it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. In fact, I have friends who have read through the Bible out loud. They take turns reading verse after verse, and they finish the entire Bible in three days.

That’s out loud. It only takes about 70 hours out loud to read the Bible. So reading it silently is about half that time. So it took me about 40 hours total. So I did it in a couple of weeks. And I share that because I hope you will do it because it is such a different experience than what I’ve been doing for the last 40 years.

I’ve been reading the Bible every year for the last, I don’t know, 10, 12 years or so where I read through the Bible in a year, which is great. But there’s something about just reading it in continuity that I never saw before.

Things that God taught me that I had never seen in years of meticulous study of certain verbs and adjectives and going, oh, what does that mean? What does that mean? But to see the whole thing, it’s just different.

Scripture Teaches

It is like if you had to watch a movie three minutes a day, you get stuff from it, but there’s something about watching a movie from beginning to end. And there was something about that time in the scripture, like David said, I was so fired up. And one of the things that jumped out at me was, I’m reading one prophet after the next.

And it was the first time I noticed how similar they all sounded. All the prophets speak in the same way. And then you get to Jesus and you get to the gospels and you’re like, wow, he’s just carrying, you got John the Baptist speaking like the prophets, Jesus speaking like them to another degree. And then you have the apostles and the thing, when I was done with it all, I saw this continuity. And what broke my heart was I’m going, God, they all sounded the same.

Scripture Grows with Us

And I don’t hear modern-day preachers sounding like them. It’s so different from how we speak today. And I had to repent. I go, God, I want to be one of these guys in this book. Because they really did not care. It seemed how people were going to respond.

And I grew up eighties, and nineties when we were all trying to communicate better and better so that we could appeal to the masses. And it was all about keeping people attracted to the word of God. And now we’re at this time where we’ve got a tiptoe because anything you say wrong gets you canceled. You even have to nuance.

You don’t even have to say something directly wrong, just, well, you use that word instead of this word. And so you can play this game where you’re constantly worried about what everyone thinks. And then pretty soon you sound nothing like the prophets.

You sound nothing like Jesus. And they were all crucified. They were all killed. They were martyred for teaching this book, but they were so direct. And I’m going, God, help me. I want to be this. I want to be this. And as David was saying all that, I was just thinking, gosh,

Knowing the Word of God

I pray that God raises up a new generation of Bible teachers who really are just saying, this is what the word of God says. Absolutely. And I know you hate it. I know you hate some of these truths, and I know what goes against everything the world is teaching.

And to say that with a sensitivity and understanding and love, but also with courage that doesn’t back off and say, now this is how God defined marriage with Adam and Eve, and it’s been passed on for 6,000 years, and now there’s this one generation. See, what I’m doing today is the same thing I was saying to my 18-year-old and 17-year-old.

I’m like, look, this was passed to me 40 years ago, 40 years ago. Okay, Adam passed God’s word to Seth and on and on to Noah, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, all through the prophet’s apostles 2000 years. And then it was given to me, and I’ve been running with this for 40 years, and now I believe it’s the last leg of the race, and I’m passing this to you, and you have a choice. You can continue with this or you drop it and pick up what your friend is feeding you

The Eternal Christ

And say, no, I’m going to latch on to what these guys are telling me. And I’m saying, don’t do it. We need to continue in this faith that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ being the cornerstone, the eternal Christ, and saying, yeah, I’m attaching myself to that old fashioned ancient structure, and I’m not going to deviate from it. I’m going to die with this in my hands. And I pray that you do too.

David Platt

I just want to encourage you. This is why I know I speak for both Francis and me on this. This is why we are so encouraged to be in this room right now, because we sense in college students today, that this kind of hunger, leaves you empty. You know where it leads, open your eyes to where it leads to more depression, more anxiety, and more pride. That cuts both ways. I’m better than this person, or I’m not as good as that person.

More messages from this world, you know, hunger for something more. Francis and I were together. One of the last times we were the other. It was with a group of 18, 19, 20 year olds. And when we got up to share, it was not like they were sitting in their seats, arms folded. It was on the edge of their seats, even standing in their seats.

The Romans

At one point it was like, let’s open Romans. They were like Romans. And it was like, well, all the Romans it is there was a hunger. Like, yes, Romans were about to dive into Romans. And so we sense that hunger.

We pour fuel on that fire, and then again, just to make the connection, to make the connections with the call of God and all of our lives to be a part of what he’s doing among the nations. We won’t be compelled to go to the nations if our minds are filled with messages from this within the world.

If that’s what our minds are filled with, the world already has that the world doesn’t need more of that. You start to open wide, your mouth, fill your mind, your heart with this word. You start to look around like, whoa, the world needs this. The nations need this.

We Must Open Our Eyes

They don’t need my thoughts. And they don’t need more of the world’s thoughts. They need the word of God. And I’ve got it. So now, living however God leads for the spread of his glory in his word to the nations makes total sense.

But we were one of the things we were praying beforehand, there’s so much when we talk about missions that is getting the cart before the horse. We can talk all day long about the 3 billion people who have little to no access to the gospel. And we need our eyes open to that reality.

But if we bypass, do we love God? Do we love his word? Do we love each other? Well, then this is, it’s going to be empty, the call to the nations. But when there’s a hunger for the word, when it’s like Romans, there is a love that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons of the present, nor the future, nor any powers in their height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from when there is no condemnation for anyone in the world who is in Christ Jesus.

Because the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death when there’s news that while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. When there is news of joy that supersedes suffering, not only is this what we rejoice in suffering because we know suffering produces perseverance.

Loving God’s Word

Perseverance. Character, character hope. Hope does not disappoint us because God’s poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he’s given us. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We have a hope that transcends everything in this world, a joy that conquers suffering. And we have a God who is for us.

So nothing can stand against us. We have a savior who is at the right hand of God interceding for us. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. So yes, in view of God’s mercy, let’s offer our bodies the living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable to God. This is spiritual. Worship my life on the altar. Use me however you want. In Romans 12, love one another.

That’s sincere, genuine, weep with each other, love with each other, pray for each other. Pursue peace with each other, and let’s make it our ambition. Romans 15, to see Christ preached where he is not been named. Now it just starts to make sense. His word fills you, his spirit fills you. It’s like, yes, this is what we live for.

That’s Christianity. That’s Christianity. So let’s not settle for anything less than that. The fullness of God’s word. God’s spirit in our lives. The fullness of love in the church as we lock arms together to take the word of God to the world, what else would we spend our lives for?

Leave behind every other dream, including a comfortable Christian spend on the American dream. Leave it behind. You’re created for a greater dream. To live for that dream. Let’s do that together.

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