Crazy Love Challenge Chapter 7 (Sacrifice, Love, Faith)

What are you doing..right now... that requires faith?

This week in my small group (I meet with a group of 11th and 12th grade students once a week) we studied chapter 7 of Francis chan's "Crazy Love". (you can read most of the book here) It's been a slow process getting through this powerful book and I think we're finally starting to take a lot of his challenges to heart. I think that one day I'd like to do a chapter by chapter review of the book and work out a challenge for each one...not today though.

Chapter 7 begins with this video. Check it out.

The major point of this chapter, to me, was the fact that we are blessed with so much. We're truly rich beyond measure. Jesus calls us time and time again to not place our trust in riches but to store up spiritual treasures. He says, that we must serve the "least of these", clothing them when they are naked, feeding them when they are hungry, visiting the sick. Whatever we do for these people, we are doing for him!

Sacrifice and Love
I think the ultimate word that came out of small group tonight was "sacrifice". We must sacrifice, we must GIVE. Francis also points out that Jesus equated giving with Love which can be seen in the famous "for God so loved the world that he ____ ??? he Gave. That was the manifestation of His love. All giving is a sacrifice. Sacrifice, selfless self abandon... caring more about others than you do for yourself...that's sounds an awful lot like love to me.

1 John 4:7ff says that God is love and the only way to know God is to Love.
1 John 3:16-20 says that we should love like Jesus by looking our for our "brother in need"

Faith
Hand in hand with this idea is the idea of faith. Hebrews 11 talks about a whole list of people who, despite their personal shortfalls, where able find the grace of God. It wasn't their righteousness that set them apart, it was their FAITH. Abraham was a liar but believed God on his word, David was an adulterous murderer and a pretty unsuccessful father (on a few accounts) but his faith was seen in his loyalty to God's direction for the kingdom among other things.

FAITH- is having the confidence that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he has promised to do. (Authentic Faith, as defined by Andy Stanley). Hebrews calls faith, "being certain of what you cannot see" and notes that "without faith, it is impossible to please God"

The Challenge
So..we need to LOVE and we need FAITH.

Find something that will show your faith. Something that is unseen and requires trusting God. Don't worry about it being the "right" thing... God would rather us do SOMETHING as opposed to nothing. Some of you might be doing something right now. Props and prayers for you. You understand sacrifice. Others might not have a clue what they're doing.

This is what I want to challenge you to do:
ask yourself this question, "what is something I can do that will both let me love someone with the love of God AND place me outside of my comfort zone so that I can live a life of faith?"

Then, get started. Do it. Start big, start small, start somewhere. Don't be satisfied with "good enough" always seek to give and give and give.

Our small group has a week to decide what we're each going to do. Won't you join us in the challenge.
Leave a comment if you want in on the challenge. Let's see if we can live out our faith.