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Welcome to the Crazy Love podcast. What if we've built a version of church that looks busy but doesn't look like Jesus? Today, Francis Chan calls us to slow down and ask the hard question, are we obeying Christ or just studying him? This message is a wake up call to trade comfort for surrender and our human effort for true dependence on the Holy Spirit. I've never heard. That was the first time I'd ever heard Matt Carter speak. I've known Matt for years and that's the first time I ever heard him speak. And it just wasn't that good. No, I'm kidding. No, it totally kidding. No, the whole time, the whole time he was talking, I'm just going, amen. No, I was joking about the first time. I mean, seriously, everything he said, everything that came out of his mouth, I just wanted to. Amen. I just wanted to go, man, I can't believe he just said that. That was so right on. That was. It was everything. The Holy Spirit's been stirring on my heart. It was eerie. Honestly, it was one of those times where I sat there, I go, this is too weird. Everything he is saying, I feel like I want to say, or I have said or I'm going to say, or now I'll say it. You know, it's just everything. And that's what I loved about it. I go, wow, I agree so much. I just want. I have a hard time moving on from that. I guess is what I'm trying to say is after he was done, I just wanted to sit there and process that. And can we just try to forget that we're at a conference? You know how sometimes we can get into conference mode and it's like, okay, here comes Francis, you know, and we just, it's just like, just to kind of slow down and go, okay, here's just a bunch of people, people, human beings in a room whose every breath is from God. And there's a being up there. And that's all this is about, you know, it's just about him. And it's just about him being pleased with what we're doing. And this whole idea of what Matt was saying about, look, if we've lost that first love, then this is all just a joke. I don't wanna be remembered as the missional community generation. And that was just so good. And I just sat there and I really know that the Lord was speaking to me. These are the things that God's been talking to me about. Everything that he spoke about. Even yesterday, just yesterday I teach this sermon prep class at our college. And, you know, so I listen to these college students speak. And, you know, sometimes they're really. But this one kid, he preached yesterday out of Exodus 33, and again, it just stopped me again. I just sat there and I thought, I gotta repent. I totally gotta repent. Exodus 33, verse 15, when it said, he said to him, this is Moses talking to God. He goes, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. How shall it be known that I found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us? So that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? And he just challenged us and he said, he goes, look, look. Is that what you want more than anything? Just the presence of God? You just want to know that he's with you right now. You just wanna know that you're walking where he wants you to walk. Because my motives in ministry have not been pure. I mean, so much of my life. I started off, you know, in high school, and that's when I came to know the Lord. And I remember I would see these youth speakers and, aw, they were just the greatest speakers. So I thought, I wanna be like him, man. He's funny, he's this, he's that, he's convicting. I wanna do that. Look at the way the crowd responded. Those were the desires, the thoughts, a lot of things that went when I started ministry. And then you become a pastor and you see these churches and you go, I want to do that. I want a big church. I want to speak in front of crowds. It's just all these thoughts and all these different things go through your mind and you just lose sight of just that original intention. Way back when, when, you just. You just wanna know you're being pleasing to God. And then the more responsibility you're given, the more God entrusts you with, the harder it gets sometimes to just go, all I want is the presence of God. I just wanna know. And if he's not in this thing, I don't wanna be a part of it. And that's what I loved about the whole idea behind this conference, was I didn't think about the title of the conference until Sunday. Like Verge, I thought, okay, that's cool, that's new. Usually you can't come up with any more new words for conferences, you know, because everyone has taken them. And I. And at first I was thinking, what does that even mean? You know, Verge, I don't know. I Was thinking merge. You know, I thought, oh, we're blend. No, that's merge. You know, And I did a merge. I did a merge conference once, and I did a. I did a surge conference once. I did an Emerge conference once, and a resurge. And, you know, I was thinking about all the different urge. You know, I did a purge for bulimics. It was just, you know, But I was thinking, what's the idea of Verge? And I actually looked up, what does verge mean? And it means, like, the outer, like, limit. Like, you're just about. You're, like, right at. Oh, yeah. On the verge. And I like that. I like that thought because I really do feel like we're right there at something and it's not. I don't see this as one of these conferences where we go, come on, you guys, let's start a movement. You know how you get it? You know, I've done those. I've been the guy that goes, yeah, come on, let's change the world. You know, and everyone stands up and we sing, shout to the Lord and run out. And everyone walks out. That was the greatest. We're gonna start a movement. And, you know, I haven't sensed that with this. What I've sensed is really that God is doing something, and we really are on the verge of seeing something happen. Like, it's just been really weird. I'm listening to you was eerie because I go, gosh, that's so crazy. We're in these different places. And those are all the thoughts that God has put on my mind. The timing of things, of just different guys that I met. You know, I remember when I was really struggling with some of this, and I get this email from a guy named Neil Cole, you know, asking me to, you know, write a forward in his book. And I said, no, sorry, I don't have any time, you know. But then later, the Holy Spirit, like, you know, go back, read that one. Which one? Neal Cole's one. I know the guy, you know, So I went and I read his book, the Church 3.0, and I'm going to. No way. Shut up. This is everything. You know, it happened when we read Total Church as a staff. We go, this is everything we've been talking about. It's everything we've been talking about. That's why when he said it, it's like, oh, that's everything. I met Dave Gibbons. I just met Dave Gibbons. Everyone assumed I knew Dave Gibbons because we're like the two Asian pastors. Seriously, in Southern California, we're The two Asian pastors that, you know, pastor multicultural churches. So everywhere I went, they go, you know, your buddy Dave. And I'm like, I never met him, you know, but we ran into each other this summer. It was so funny. We had a conference together, and we both. We just, like, ran up to each other and hugged each other. We did. Because he was like, man, I've been hearing about you for years. Like, oh, yeah, you too. I was like, oh. You know, and it was so crazy. It's like, ah. You know. So we went out, got some sushi, you know, and we're just laughing. I mean, it was just like, wow, I can't believe I haven't known this guy. But everything he was talking about, it was just like this. You gotta be kidding me. You gotta be kidding me. Everything you're telling me is everything the Lord's been putting on my heart. And, you know, Jeff Vanderstal, other guys. It's just. It's a really strange thing. I don't believe it's. This is not something I would have ever come up with. I liked American church. I did. I liked being able to hide in the back and come in and do my thing. My relationship with. I don't really like hanging out with a lot of people, you know, and just being honest with you, I'm more of an introvert. And even my wife, I remember years ago, she asked, she goes, honey, what do you love most about me? And my answer to her, without even really flinching, I go, of all the people on the earth, you bug me the least. Okay, so that gives you an insight into, you know, me, and we got other people like me out there. It's just that thought that so. But what happened was, as I started studying the Scriptures and looking at Scripture, and I think that's what Matt was talking about. It always bugged me because you'd read scripture, you'd see one thing. You go to church, you see something else. And now everyone's just going, I'm just. I'm done with that. There was a unity, a love in the scriptures that we just don't see in church as we've been doing it. This whole. What do you call it, missional community thing, you know, people have asked me, hey, you know what you're just doing? Because it's the emergent thing. He goes, and aren't you emergent? I go, I'm not emergent. I don't even know what, you know, people say, are you this movement? Are you this movement? Are you this movement? And I Go. I don't know, man. I just read this and I just. I just kind of. Whatever, whatever it says, blah, it comes right back. Maybe we're regurgent. We just, you know, whatever, you know, this is what they did. There it is again. You know, it's just. I'm not trying to come up with anything new. It's just when I read the Scriptures, this is what I was and what I'm convicted about of the way the church ought to look. And you can go ahead and tweet that Francis is a regurgit pastor, but like, I remember, like, seven or eight years ago, some around there, I came back from Africa and the Lord just tore me up. He just showed me, you don't care about the poor. You know, you just avoid them. And when I got over there, it just caused me to fall in love with the people over there. And suddenly my heart for those who are in need. And I started seeing it on every page of Scripture. How do I miss this? And it was so crazy because then I'd start talking to my friends in other places around the nation, and guess what? God was teaching them the Spirit was saying the same thing to them. And suddenly he saw this generation of people going, man, we gotta start caring for the poor. And that just became this huge thing. But it wasn't like we all got together and said, hey, let's start a movement on caring for the poor. It was just something the Holy Spirit was doing in each of our hearts in all these different places. And then a few years ago, three, four years ago, the Lord really was convicting me on my theology on the Holy Spirit. I started reading the scriptures, going, wait a second. I've been completely ignoring the Holy Spirit. Not completely. I would never deny he exists, but the reality of him in my life. And so then I start talking to my friends, and guess what? The Holy Spirit's leading them to think about. And in the last couple years, like I said, we've been getting together as elders and looking at Scripture and going, man, I want this. I want what the scriptures are saying. And then we start, you know, as we go out and talk to other people, we realize, wait, other people are even further down the road than we are. It's something the Holy Spirit is doing. And that's what I love about this, is it takes a lot of pressure off. I don't stand up here going, okay, come on, Francis, start a movement. I just go, man, a movement started, and it's cool. I get to be a part of it. We get to Be a part of it. And you're here because the Holy Spirit has guided you here through your teaching, through your study, through your theology, whatever it is. We have to make sure this is driven theologically, though, you know, that it's not just this, oh, here's a cool thing to do. Let's break down the megachurch. You know, but it's more just, I read this in God's Word, and so it has to be done. See, I've had other ideas in my head that weren't necessarily biblically driven. I go, oh, man, why don't we try this at the church? Or, why don't we try this? Why don't we try that? And sometimes it goes, well, sometimes it fails. Sometimes I just quit going, you know what? It's just too hard. But this is different because this is something. I still remember the day when I was with a couple of my elders and we were sitting at just at Panera and we were just talking about church, and we're talking about biblically, what it's supposed to be. And then the reality hit us. I still remember when the reality hit us where one of the guys said, you know what scares me is when I read the scriptures, God doesn't get mad at the people, he gets mad at the leaders. He goes, man, our church is the way it is because we led them here. And there was this sense of. I mean, seriously, it was like this sickening, man, I don't want to stand before God on this one and just go, well, this is the way everyone else was doing. No, I knew better. I know better now. And I know what ought to take place in these gatherings, because I'm looking at scripture. And as we looked at that, it's one of those things where we go, we've got to change. I don't know how. We're still in the middle of the process, but it's not something we can just quit because it's biblically driven, it's theologically driven. It's not an idea, it's not a trendy thing. It's just something we see in scripture and we say, we've got to do this. And. And it's cool because as we look around and talk to other people and many of you, you go, yeah, that's the same thing. I feel. Last week I was in Edmonton. I don't recommend that. And this guy, one of the guys at this conference, younger guy, was just. He just said, hey, what would you say to a younger guy that's thinking about starting a church? And I said, be courageous Biblically. Be biblically courageous. Think. Think through. Be as biblical as you can. Just erase what you've seen everywhere else and just open up the Bible and go, okay, if I only had this. And I'd never been to this church or this church. I just never been to church, and I just open up this book. I go, just try to figure out, okay, what would you do? Because I told my goal, I wasn't mature enough and I wasn't courageous enough to do that. I just looked around at other patterns. I just looked at what other people were doing, and I would tweak it. I go, I like this about his. I like this about his. I like this about that church over there. And so I'm going to combine those and make this thing. I go, I didn't have the wisdom to just sit down with the word of God and go, okay, what is it? Just clearly saying what's the obvious truth just based upon scripture. And I just really encourage them. I go, just try that. Because I criticize the cults all the time. I criticize cults because, yeah, sure, you can take this verse from here, this verse from here, this verse from here. You can take all of these verses and justify your theology, but there's never. You never would have come up with that from a simple, natural reading of scripture. Anyone can create a new religion and take verses from all these different places and make it work. I go, but you would never get that if you just sat down and read through the scriptures and just came to a conclusion on your own. You were fed all of this theology. And in the same way, I gotta look at myself and the way that I've done church and go, okay, would I ever have come up with this just from Scripture? And the answer is, no, I wouldn't have. What would I have come up with. If I just read the scriptures? I wouldn't even think so much about the gathering. You know, like, my first thought wouldn't be, let's have a gathering out of the scriptures. I would think, I'm on a mission. Like, I love this God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And now I've gotta go out and make disciples. That's what I would think. I need to go out there and just reach as many people as I can. I'm supposed to teach them to obey everything that God's commanded. That's what I would get out of Scripture. And then what would happen as I did that? What I believe would naturally happen is suddenly I would find those other People who were on that same mission. Because we'd be the weirdest people on Earth, right? We would stick out, we'd be so different. And that pressure to always stay on that mission, everyone else would be beating me down. So I would actually need these brothers and sisters in my life and tell them, hey, don't let me slow down. And. And I won't let you slow down. We gotta stay on this mission together. You see, this is why I wasn't into fellowship before, because I didn't need any more friends. Okay? It wasn't like, oh, yeah, you know, let's just get another gathering so I have someone to talk to. Like, I didn't need accountability groups so that I wouldn't sleep around or whatever it was. I can do that. I can do that on my own. Like, not sleep. You know what I mean? I can, like, you know, I don't need that to do American church. I don't need fellowship. But to stay on mission every day, I need people because I'm gonna get distracted. There's so many things I would rather do than make disciples. And so I need people in my life to tell me this. That's what I would get out of Scripture, is I had to go out and start making disciples. And as I did that, I really believe that I would start gathering with other people doing the same thing. I would look at that great commission that we all memorized, and I would take it literally. You know, I love what Alan Hirsch was saying on there of just how we. I forget how he said it, but, you know, he said something like that. I just. I liked it when he said it, and I don't remember it now, but basically we tame everything down. You know, he toned everything down. You know, whatever we do, we emasculate. Oh, I thought he said emasculate. Domesticate. Did he say emasculate? Oh, okay. Domesticate. What am I thinking about? Okay, domesticate. We domesticate. Yeah, yeah, that's what we do. But it's so weird. It is because I'm a very simple person. Have you noticed that yet? I'm a very simple person. And I just go black and white. Here's what he says to do. Go make disciples. It's so weird how we change things in church and we make everything like, about the heart, but the heart becomes not what we see in the Scriptures, where it was kind of the mission control center, the decision making center of a person's being. But it becomes like this weird, vague. You know, I received Jesus into my heart. What does that mean, you know, it's just we. And we'll take the Great Commission and different things about it, and we don't. We just don't take his words literally. It's so weird because when I was a kid, we used to play this game called Simon Says, right? Most of us have played that. Unless you're really young, because there's no app for it. Simon says is. You know, you just. Simon says, pat your head. You know, so, okay, you know, Simon said it. It's just. It was a very simple game. But it's so weird how in the church, Jesus says. It's a totally different game. If Jesus says something, you don't have to do it. You just have to memorize it. You study it, you memorize. You guys, it doesn't make any sense. A lot of the things we do when he tells us, go out and make disciples, and how many people in our churches are actually making disciples? They memorized it. You know, when I tell my daughter, hey, Rach, go clean your room. She doesn't come back to me two hours later and go, I memorized what you said. You said, rach, go clean your room. I can say it in Greek. My friends are gonna come over and we're gonna have a study on what it would look like if I cleaned my room. She knows better than that. And so why do we think we're gonna come before the judge one day and quote everything that he said and talk about how much we know? It's just this black and white stuff. If I just started with Scripture, I'd go, here's what I would do. I would start making disciples. I think about the love that I see in Scripture. That's. If I came out, I thought, wow, what I do see about the interactions between believers or followers is such an intense love. I mean, wouldn't you get that if you just came out of Scripture? Wouldn't you think, okay, whatever I do when I meet a brother, like, I gotta treat that guy like family. Because when I would read the book of Acts, you know, you know, Acts chapter two. You guys know these passages? Acts, chapter two. I mean, I would read that and think, wow, they devoted themselves, verse 42, to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through, through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, Attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. I love chapter four, verse 32, when he says now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own. But they had everything in common and with great power. The apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And a great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid at the apostles feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. See, we read those and we go, man, could you imagine being a part of something like that where no one cared, you see? But it wasn't that they got together and said, hey, let's practice community. They didn't say let's get together and let's practice fellowship. No, they were on this mission because they saw someone, someone rise from the grave. And they just go, you know what? I saw him. He was on a cross. I saw him die. And then now I saw him walking around and he said, go tell everyone to obey me. And so at that point these people were just like, okay, fine, I could care less about any of my stuff. I just saw a person rise from the grave. There really is life after death. I got to start telling everyone. And if you're going to tell people, look, I don't care. I don't care about my stuff anymore. And there was this group of people who just didn't care about their stuff anymore. They just cared more about being part of this family, this group of people that were all going to get this message out. They realized our lives have eternal purpose. Now we just saw someone rise from the grave. It makes sense. It's radical, but it makes sense. That's the thing, is when you read the book of Acts, you look at their commitment and the crazy things they did. And while it's insane, it makes sense. It's radical, but it makes sense. What wouldn't have made sense was if you read all of that and they saw a man rise from the grave and he said, go and make disciples. So they got together in a room every Sunday and sang some songs and a guy teached. See, that really wouldn't make sense. Then a guy taught and they came back the next week and did the Same thing. And then the next Sunday, and they did the same thing, and some of them gave 10%. Even you would read that, and you go, shut up. You guys didn't see someone rise from the grave? Shut up. If you saw someone rise from the grave, you'd be doing a lot more than that. You'd be telling everyone, you know, see, that's. It makes sense. If I just started from Scripture, I would think about the love that I'd have for these other people. I would think about First Peter 2, where it talks about how we're this holy nation, we're these living stones, and where we're building a. We make up a temple. Like, I'm just a piece of it. You know, I'm like a Lego, you know, like a little Lego piece. There's nothing great about it. But then once we. It's this idea of working together, and we stack up and we create this organism where we love each other so much. And people in the world start looking and going, man, look at the way they interact. And they actually see Jesus. That's why in 1st John 4:12, it says, no one's ever seen God. 1st John 4:12 says, no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, somehow his love's manifest in us. So no one out there has ever seen God. But if we, as the body would love one another, they'd walk in and they'd get a glimpse of Him. They'd get a glimpse of his love. This is the way Scripture says that this is how we reach the world. It's very similar to what Jesus said when he was praying in John 17. He goes, Lord, I pray that they be one, I in them, you and me. May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you've loved me. That's weird. He says, wait. Once they're unified, when they really love one another, not only will I be in their midst, but when they love each other like that, the world's gonna believe that Jesus was sent from God. Our unity's gonna show that. That's crazy to me. I remember when I grew up in church, you know, the way we proved that Jesus really came from God was through apologetics, through prophecy. I'm not saying that's bad. I still use it. But Scripture says, no, it's gonna be through your unity. It's gonna be by the way, that you love one another. And the truth is, is when people came into our gatherings on Sunday, they didn't experience that. They still don't. They're working on it. Something's just gotta change. Something's gotta break. Because when I read the scriptures, there's supposed to be such a unity where God wants us like a body. First Corinthians 12, like, hand, foot, eye, ear. Like, we're all just part of this one thing. Do you guys. Do you think that way? Do you think about God in heaven right now? And for those of us right here in this room, okay, forget about everyone out there, even back at our churches or gatherings, like, right here, God wants us to live like a body. Like if God had. If we care about what Jesus wants, we're saying, Jesus is Lord. What does he desire? He wants to see us even in these next couple of days, living like family, living like an extension of one another. And I thank God I will say this, you know, with the different frustrations I've had with our gatherings, man, some of my elders are here at this conference with me, and I look at our relationships with one another and I go, okay, this is it. This is. This. This is. This is biblical. These are guys that I know would give their lives for Jesus. These are guys who are giving their lives for Jesus. And their wives were giving their lives for the. Like, we're on this mission together. There's a unity. It's a body. You know, I've thought about leaving. I always do, you know, whatever. We all do, right? Okay, let's be honest. Okay? We all think about quitting, whatever. But the one thing I go, man, but I can't leave this group of guys where I've just never seen a body work like this. I mean, we disagree. We're so different, but there's this unity, man. I'll never forget, you know, us studying this acts passage together 1 night after having dinner together and breaking bread together and just going, man, haven't you guys always just thought, why can't this happen in Southern California? Why do people always say this is cultural? I mean, the believers began to sell their possessions. That wasn't the norm. You know, why do we say that's cultural? Why would they write it if everyone was doing that anyways? And everyone always had everything together. No, there was something unique happening. It was this weird group where they had everything in common and no one was like, no, it's about me. It's about me. It's about me. No, it's about this mission. It's about this God. And so everything I thought, why can't we do that where we depend on Each other, man. And I looked at, you know, one of the guys, I go, man, I. I promise you, man, that if anything happened to you, I really look at you like, Like a brother. Like, you know, like the Bible says. And if anything happened to you, I could promise you, man, that whatever is mine, man, is. Is your family's. Like, I would take care of them just as much as I take care of my own family. Your kids, I mean, you don't have to worry about them. And, and, and. And for guys to look at me and say the same thing, look me in the eyes and. No, Francis, I promise you, if anything ever happened to you, everything, whatever is mine, it's your family's, man. I got your kids. I'll take care of them. Everything's cool. And pretty soon we're like, so you're my life insurance. We can just ditch life insurance? Yes, let's ditch it. And let's be interdependent on one another. And so if you guys don't come through, then my family's gonna be messed up. But I know you guys will come through. Cause I've seen the way you've sacrificed for this thing. You believe in this thing. It was just an awesome time where we just said, you know, hey, my car, my house, anyone need money, my bank account, whatever. It's not. And I tell you, it was one of those times where we walked out of that house, all of us, with this sense of awe. Like, that felt like Christianity. That was weird. I don't know when I felt that. Just felt. You ever had those times where you just felt. This feels like the Bible and it's so rare. That's what stinks is it's like, man, this shouldn't be like that. These are the things that are obviously biblical. I think about the power. That I would believe in if I just read the Scriptures. The power of Jesus to do something. The holy spirit, the promised one. Are you sure you've experienced the Holy Spirit this last year? You know, or a lot of the things that you've seen and experienced, or a lot of them explainable just by natural means? So when I read the Scriptures, that's why it's so important that this has to be a Jesus thing that I. The reason why I'm a part of this is I believe it's something Jesus is doing. And I'm not trying to make him do something. I'm not trying to start a movement. We're not in here strategizing and planning a movement. And how do we start one it can't be that, because that doesn't flow with Scripture. I mean, the disciples, they didn't get together and plan out the day of Pentecost. Okay, John, you learned Chinese. And Peter, you do Spanish. Okay? We already changed your name once. Now you're Pedro. You know, and it wasn't a plan. What was it? It was the Holy Spirit, you know, working in all these different. Wasn't it the Holy Spirit working in a bunch of different individuals, but it was creating one unified result. And that's what I'm saying about what I think is going on in here. You know what I mean? Like, when I look back in my life and I look at when this stuff started bugging me, really bugging me, it started bugging other people, too. And that's why I get excited about it. It's like, okay, I'm just along for the ride now. I'm not trying to create anything here. I really believe this is something the Holy Spirit is doing. The other day, I went with my buddy out to the beach to go surfing, and it was totally flat. You know, there's nothing there. So we bought a burrito, breakfast burrito, and drove home. I didn't go out in the ocean with him and say, hey, you go out further and splash. Maybe you can make a wave. No, you just go, there's nothing here. We just go home, guys. And that's the same thing I'm talking about with this, is we just come in this room and go, jesus, is this what I think this is what you're doing? I think you're starting a wave here, but if you're not, then let's just go home. Because I've tried to start movements. Haven't you? You tried to create something and make something work, and it just. It doesn't work. There's no power to it. I remember one time in an elder meeting, we were just. We were trying to figure out this whole community thing, and we were just frustrated, and we were, you know, getting on each other's nerves a little bit. And then one of our elders, Matt, just stomped us and says, you guys, I just feel like we're trying too hard. He goes, I've noticed in my neighborhood, I don't even say things to certain people anymore. I just get on my knees and I start praying for them. And I can't even tell you about just the results. Things are just happening. And I thought, wow, that was so good. And we just canned the rest of the business. Let's just pray the rest of the time. And let's just ask God to move. And we're not here to try to start a movement. We're here because we believe God is starting a wave. And it seems like just like on that day of Pentecost where he talked to a bunch of different individuals and uniquely gifted, and there was this one unified result. It seems like that's what's going on right now. And it's what I wanna pray for. Because I go, no, this is biblical. When Jesus says to pray in his name, it means more than obviously, in Jesus name, we pray. It's like, what are the things that Jesus wants? And these are things we ought to be confident about. That's a thing. As we pray even now, I'm gonna say, lord, would you start getting the believers in our nation to really love you and be serious about making disciples? And can we. Can you, God just put a love in us for one another where we really start looking like family. Because you guys know, our churches don't look anything like families anymore. You know, they ditch the moment. You know, one bad thing is set up front, or one, you know, service changes, or, oh, no, they have got a better kids program. There's no sense of unity or oneness or about. And it's like, lord, that's gotta change. There's no interdependence and a sharing of our belongings. We're just as individualistic as the rest of the world. And those are the things. What I love about it is those are things God wants to change. I mean, when I see in scripture that's his desire, I know I'm praying in Jesus name when I ask for those things. And so it helps me. Because, you know, sometimes when you pray, you don't know what to pray for. And you're not even sure if you're praying for the right thing. This is one of those things where I know I am. I know I'm praying for the right thing. I'm asking for people to go on mission, to live missional lives. I'm asking people to love one another so much so that people can see Christ in the way that we care for one another. These are the things I'm asking for. These are things I know I see in Scripture. I'm asking that we really make Jesus Lord, and not just play this weird Jesus says game in church where we just memorize and study and talk, but we really live this way. And I tell you, I'm just. When we were praying beforehand with the band and with Matt, I just felt led to pray. God the last thing I want to do is another conference and try to start something, get something going. Aren't you just all bored of that? I mean, especially Texas. You guys have conferences every. You know, it's just. Don't you just go, ugh. And you just go, God, I want something that's just. That's clearly you. A movement of your spirit where this should have a life of its own. An unstoppable force. Because that's what I see in the Book of Acts. Nothing was going to stop it. Nothing was going to stop that church. I want to spend some time praying, but I don't want to just say, pray and close our eyes. I want you to think about the Book of Acts and how unstoppable they were. Imagine, back then, these guys come out speaking in different languages. Amazing. You know, even when sin tried to creep in there with Ananias and Spira, God struck them dead. Okay, fine. Problem solved. You move on then. You know, Stephen, remember when he was about to get stoned? Nothing was going to stop him. Oh, but Saul might stop him. Saul could stop him. No, you see how it's all Jesus. Like the whole thing with Saul and everything else. I mean, every time there was something that was going to maybe block the church, God said, no, no, no. I'm going to build my church. The gates of hell won't stand against this thing. I just want to be a part of that. I've done the megachurch thing, the speaking thing, the end of my life. I'm gonna stand before God and he's gonna say, I didn't ask you to do all those things. Here's what I ask you to do. Here's the way I asked you to love others. Did you do that? And that's why I go, this is something that has to happen. And so, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna ask that we could continue in the Book of Acts and that our lives and our gatherings would be congruent with what we see in scripture. And I want you to believe with me that God in heaven actually hears us. Let's make this a biblical gathering where it's a bunch of people with one heart and one mind, like one person. And God from heaven looks down and goes, well, look at that room in Austin right there. They're serious about this. Thank you for listening to the Crazy Love podcast. Join us next week for a new episode. But until then, for more resources from Crazy Love Ministries or to support the work of Crazy Love, please visit our website@crazylove.org. Sam.