Transcription
Did you all feel that last night? Did you feel that?
You feel that fire in your heart? I got one question for you. How do you make it last? And when you feel it, you want it to stay and you hold on as long as you can, but you go home. Same routine, same friends, and you try to hold on. Maybe you show up for something new. Try it again. Light that flame again. Back home. Same routines, same friends, same problems, same anxieties, same heartache, same homework, same you. How do you make it last?
You know, it's funny. It kind of reminds me back in the early 2000s, I was uh I was a youth pastor and I remember I would bring my kids to an event like this and we'd light that fire and they feel it and you know it's real. When you're in the moment, everything about it tells you it's real and you think, "I'll never forget this feeling. This will never go away." I was a youth pastor for eight years. Let me tell you something. It went away. Does that mean it wasn't real? What does it take to make it last? We go to camps, we go to mission trips, we go to retreats, we'd have worship nights. You feel the feeling.
Fast forward a few years in my youth ministry. In about 2005, we're going to one more summer camp. And I got an idea. I got an idea. What if while we're at the camp, I'm going to give the kids a habit that they can keep. I want to get them started on a Bible habit. I want to get them in the word of God. I want the word of God to come alive for them. But there are two reasons why why most people don't read the Bible. Most people want to read the Bible. In America, stats show that about 60 to 70% of us actually want to read the Bible. There's two reasons we don't. We don't have time and we don't understand.
So, I get an idea. I'm going to write my kids a guide to one chapter at a time. My kids needed some wisdom. They're doing some foolish things. So, I started writing a guide. And for every day at camp, I gave them a chapter of Proverbs and I wrote them a little guide for it. call it a daily Bible guide. Print it out, hand it out. Well, as I was preparing, I thought, well, that's just camp. What happens after camp? So, I got another idea. What if I write the next six chapters and I hand it out to them at the end of camp? So, I did it. Hand it out to the end of camp. Well, that's just one week after camp. So, the next Sunday, I thought, I got to have something new. So, the next week, I wrote the next six chapters of Proverbs, wrote a little guide, handed out. And all week long, they're reading the Bible every day, and they get a little help understanding. We ran out of Proverbs, so we went on to another book of the Bible. I walked them through book after book. That lasted for about a year until I gave out writing these guys, but I got it going for a year.
Now, let me tell you, when you get worn out, you can get worn out in ministry. And when God sends you into the darkness, it can feel a long ways from that flame. You can't live on feelings, guys. Feelings are beautiful. You can't live on feelings. Let me tell you a little something about the love of God, about how the love of God works. When the feeling of love produces the actions of love, that's called puppy love. And it's a sweet thing. It really is. But when the feelings of love Wayne and the actions of love give way, that's called conditional love. And it's very human. But when the feelings of love are gone, I mean, fall off the edge of the planet, gone, and the actions of love persevere, that's called covenant love. That's called covenant love. And that is a work wrought by God. If you experience that once in your life, you are blessed. You might just get it from your mama. I hope you receive it from your dad. We don't all get that. We don't all get that. But it is the love that God has for you. Romans 5'8 says, "This is how God loved us." But God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When I was out doing my thing, when you were at your worst, when I was at my in my pit, God was not feeling gushy, wooy, mushy feelings for me. Uh-uh.
Let me give you a little insight on love. Girls, you need to listen. Young men, you need to listen deeper. Never trust the feeling of love without the sacrifice of love. The feeling of love is a beautiful thing. It will propel you into all kinds of foolish things, all kinds of good things, all kinds of dangerous. Feeling love is a beautiful thing. But the sacrifice of love, keep my habits, keep my actions, keep my covenant with God, whether or not I feel it. And when you keep those actions, and the feelings come back, those feelings go deep.
But I'm sitting there in my little cubicle and I get an idea. I get an idea. But what if I take those Bible guides that I had made for all my my kids at youth group, I put a shelf. What if I What if I What if I put them on an app? It's 2008. Apps are a brand new thing. iPhone just came out. What if I What if I put them on audio? A 10-minute audio guide for every chapter of the Bible. Give the world a Bible app. I started pitching this idea. I started writing ideas down on sticky notes. I put them on the wall. We'll make it 10 minutes. We'll make it audio. And here's what I started drawing up the app, put on my wall. But I would pitch the idea to my my to friends and as I shared them, they're like, "That's great, man. Bible app technology. You go, buddy." And they didn't get it. They didn't see what I what I could see. And I wrote this down on a sticky note. I wrote this down because I was trying to figure out what I saw that they couldn't see. I recognize that the idea of an app with an audio guide for each chapter of the Bible is not the exciting sort of idea that sparks a revival. That's okay. We're not trying to spark a revival. We intend to fuel one.
That reminds me back in the parable, what was the difference between the lanterns that stayed lit and the ones that went out? It was oil. Is it really that simple? Is that all it takes? Just a little bit of oil to keep that fire lit. So, what's the oil?
Now, this is Reach One's very first conference. This is also a first for through the word. This is the very first time we are sponsoring a conference because we got an idea. When Mark and I got together, I thought, what happens when you put spark next to fuel? What we want to do, we want to send you home with a Bible habit. We want to keep your fire burning. I want to give you a Bible habit. It works as simple as this. I'm not asking you to commit for a lifetime. I'm not asking you to decide what you believe right now. I am inviting you on a journey through God's word [music] with us, with everybody here. I want to start some Bible habits in here. I want to light some lanterns. Give me 10 [music] minutes. 10 minutes of audio. Give me 10 minutes each day. I want to change your life. I want God to change your life. I want to light that fire. Spark the flame. Fuel the fire. Just hit play.