This is a call of repentance--to turn from worshipping ourselves and our lives to worshipping the only one who is worthy of worship. In 2006 Francis Chan struggled with whether he was committed to serving Christ as Lord of his life. Chan left his church for a short period to have a come to Jesus time.
This sermon is what he shared with his congregation at Cornerstone Church in Simi, California, when he returned. I encourage you to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying through Francis, and to spend the time at the end of the sermon praying, as Chan and Cornerstone did. Ask yourself, what am I holding onto, essentially valuing more than God? It may not be wealth and success and comfort as in the case of Simi Valley.
Whether it is pain, anger, disappointment, or something else, it needs to be given to God, because we need to be filled with His Spirit. We were made to be human carafes, from moment to moment being filled with His Spirit and sharing His Spirit with each other. Instead, we place a greater value on what we've filled our lives with, and are left wondering why what we share with others fails to quench their thirst.
Below is John the Revelator's vision of God in heaven, which Francis references in the sermon. I believe most of us keep our human carafes filled with everything but God because we don't recognize God for who He is; we don't have a clue, really, about what holiness is, and what glory really means.
After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this." At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! And he who sat there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.
Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issue flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder, and before the throne burn seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God; and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,"Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created." Revelation 4
