The Nosebleed Never Looked So Good- #Passion2015

(Go to Twitter for Passion Conference @passion268 to see more awesome photos from Passion 2015! They are truly snapshots of the Glory of God!)

Old people sit in the nosebleed section when “Jesus Jamming” with the next generation!  From this perspective,  I believe  we get to see a glimpse of how God sees us from his Throne.  When  we saw a sea of hands raise in praise to God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, it was almost more than we could bare!  From the nosebleed section we praised, prayed, and paused! If the floor wasn’t so sticky, the shoes would have come off, because it was HOLY GROUND for sure!

For anyone who does not know what the Passion Conference is all about, let me catch you up.

Check out 268generation.com/passion2015

Passion2015-A gathering of 18-25 year olds and their leaders

“Passion exists to glorify God, uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation.  The 268 Generation is a radical generation of Christ followers rooted in the confession of Isaiah 26:8:

“Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desires of our hearts.”

Fueled by a passionate pursuit of God and a desire to spread His glory throughout the earth, many have been a part of the Passion gatherings that have spawned the 268 movement.  Still others have joined the wave from places across the nation and around the globe.”

I clearly do not fit the 18-25 year old range and technically, I am not a leader; however,  I did give birth to one of these 258ers, bought his ticket and reserved his room; THEREFORE, if anyone asks me what I am “there for”,  I can honestly say, “I’m a leader!” I guess you could also say that I (and my 2 old friends) are part of the “still others have joined the wave from places across the nation” crowd.  We showed up with holy expectations and God most certainly did not disappoint!

From the moment we arrived, the atmosphere was electric.  As Jennifer Lopez would say, “I’ve got goosies!”  His Glory was tangible and the sea of college students pouring into Philips arena was dazzling and jubilant!

A word confession here:

I looked up synonyms for RADIANT to describe the crowd and there were 2 aspects of the word worth mentioning.  Radiant means sending out light but it also means emanating great joy! Dazzling was the perfect glow descriptor and jubilant was the perfect expression for their joy!

In a nut shell, the entire weekend was about THE GLORY! There really are no words to describe the visible presence of God’s holiness but just as John put pen to paper on Patmos, giving us the inspired vision of Revelation; I am going to attempt to put “mouse to mac” and share my take-aways from one of the greatest “Glory Rides” evah- #Passion2015 or Bust! (and I literally am about to bust out HIS GLORY all over this post!!!!!)

Louie Giglio, Lecrae, John Piper, Judah Smith, and Christine Caine brought the Word and Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, and Kristian Stanfill worshiped for an AUDIENCE OF ONE in an arena of somewhere around 20,000!  One of the many cool Holy Spirit highlights of the Passion encounter is how HE ties all the messages together without the messengers coordinating their “fresh manna”!  The Glory of God was the scarlet thread that was woven throughout the weekend and I have not doubt that universities around the nation have “cracked glow sticks” illuminating the darkness all over their campuses at this very moment! May the torch-bearers keep the “Glory Glow”, as they go and continue to grow in their faith!

My BOTTOM LINES from Passion 2015:

FRIDAY NIGHT

**TETELESTAI-It is finished!

**The system is finished. Sin is finished. Self is finished!  The action is complete but the effect of the action is ongoing!

**The Story of the Gospel is not “I’m good” but “I’m Alive!”  Christ lives in me! Gal 2:20

**The power of the Gospel breaks us out of the “me” in my generation and the “you” in your generation!

SATURDAY MORNING

**Deep roots have far reaching branches! I don’t want to just “do stuff”. I want to know why.  I don’t want to live on instinct. I want my life INTENTIONAL for Jesus!

**One of the traits of God is to know why we do what we do.

**We were created to radiate God’s glory!  The Passion Message is God’s beauty is unmatched and God’s beauty is God’s Glory!

**Saving faith in the Gospel is not at root a decision but a sight of HIS BEAUTY!   Ultimately saving faith is about who I behold not what I believe! Have we seen God in Christ as our greatest Treasure?  Jesus is the pearl of unmatched value (Matt 13:46)

**What we as christians proclaim is not ourselves for we proclaim Christ by being a SERVANT!  The OBJECTS of the MIRACLE become the AGENTS(not the AUTHOR) of the MIRACLE!  There is only one MIRACLE AUTHOR and that is JESUS CHRIST!  The world around us needs the Jesus in us!   The world does not need another “opinion”; they need TRUTH and HE is a PERSON-CHRIST JESUS!

**There is no sorrow on earth Heaven can not heal!

**When we get to Heaven, we will not only hear the angels sing but we will hear their constant state of AWE!  The angels can not understand how we treat God as if HE were irrelevant or nonexistent! They live in AWE of HIS GLORY, while we can’t even stay amazed by HIS grace!

SATURDAY AFTERNOON 

Session 1:

**If you got to write ONE note to save a loved ones life, what would it say?

**Mary and Martha’s note went something like this:

“Lazarus, the one YOU love, is sick. Could you please come heal him?”

**Those closest to Jesus are more preoccupied with Jesus’ love for them, not their love for HIM!  It is like they subconsciously know that they can’t love without HIS love first!

**5 times in John’s gospel John gives himself the nickname: “The one Jesus loves”.   Although it may seem arrogant to us, God must have inspired John to put pen to paper and write, “the one Jesus loves”.  I think God does this in order to show us how HE sees us and what HE wants us to nickname ourselves.  HE gives us permission to boast in HIM and HIS love for us!

**Do you know what moves God most?   GOD

**God is most moved by HIS LOVE!

**John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON, that whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

**If you are bad, broken and beaten then we are welcome to the party!  ( WHOSOEVER defined!)

Session 2:

**We are here to reflect the Glory of God!

**Are we REFLECTING or REJECTING God’s Glory???

**One way to define Glory: HIS holiness made public

**When the earth reflects the holiness of God, it is called GLORY!

**I do not want to take redemption for granted!  There is no higher honor than reflecting the Glory of God to this world!

**May we stay SURPRISED when God uses us!

**God did not leave this world without a revelation of his Glory.  His Glory was revealed in Christ and Christ is in me and you, as His followers; therefore we are a revelation of HIS GLORY! We are living Tabernacles!

**When we display the Glory of God, the people around us will see it!!! And if they don’t, what could that mean???

This photo totally displays the Glory of God!

SATURDAY NIGHT SESSION

** At some point we have to make a decision.  “I will ___________”, which also means, there is  “I won’t _________.”

**When we have found the ONE, then we won’t follow all the other!!

**Just after one of Elijah’s greatest victories, he is totally derailed by a messenger bringing a threat from Jezebel!

**How often do we let 1 bad message erase all the good messages or 1 fail erase all the victories??

**It is astounding what one messenger can do! (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc…)

**The greater the assignment, the greater the opposition!

**We have got to stop killing each other in the church!  We have no idea what our leaders are going through!

**We are called to pass the baton, throw the mantle, to the next generation ( and from the nosebleed, we see raised, ready hands to catch the baton and shoulders yoked to Christ, that are ready to receive the mantle:)

**I will not let the enemy DERAIL me because of Jesus I already have VICTORY!

**We have got to do the work and stop farming it out!

**God tends to work with those who are already working!

**Revival is called WORK!

**The only love language is DIE TO SELF!

**PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TO PLOW BECAUSE IT IS MESSY!

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus TO DO…” Eph 2:10

We have gifts and talents to “deliver Jesus” to our generation!

**Because of Christ Jesus, those who start bad can finish good!!

**Begin to plow now! Dreaming about the future is not bad unless you fail to work now!

**The plower paves the way to purpose!  If we are not willing to plow, what in the world makes us think we are ready for more! The years plowing are what prepares the way to fulfilling out God given destinies!

**We live in a society where everyone wants to be a “co-star” but very few want to be “co-laboreres”!  We need more side-kicks!

**Once we feel the pull of where we are going, we will never be satisfied with where we have been!  Plan B must be burned!

**Some bridges must be burned in order to move across the new ones on the way to your destiny!

**Elisha gave it all away to follow Elijah and become his SERVANT!

**If we are not willing to embrace obscurity, then we are not equipped to handle celebrity or prosperity!

SUNDAY MORNING CLOSING

**God always gets done what HE is going to get done!  HE is not bound by time!

**One more thing is finished at the work of the Cross:  the system, sin, shame, self and satan are all FINISHED at the CROSS!

**The enemy is still talking but he is done!

**As we do the work, Christ does the work in us!

The bottom line of my BOTTOM LINES from Passion 2015!

Andy Stanley was the first preacher I ever heard share a message with a “bottom line” that sent me to the Word for myself, that I could remember, and that I could instantly apply to my life.  North point Community church was the first podcast I ever listened to and I have been a podcast junkie ever since!  North Point led me to Passion City, which led me to The City Church, which led me to Elevation Church, which led me to Gateway, Willow Creek, National Community Church, The Village Church, Celebration Church, Hillsong, and Church of the Highlands, which is now my church home.  The body of Christ is coming together in the most beautifully creative way and my walk with the Lord has been greatly enriched by the humility, honesty, humor, and hunger for Truth that rolls out of my iPhone and earphones into my head and heart!  One of my litmus tests when listening to a teacher is the emphasis they put on sending me to the Word to test everything we hear.  Passion 2015 and all the podcasts I listed above are just a sampling of the mentors God has placed in my life to point me back to HIM!  They will never know all the seeds they have planted but they left me full to overflow, while remaining famished for the Word!

FEED AN APPETITE AND IT GROW-Full and Hungry at the same time!!!

In the words of Mark Batterson: STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY!

JUST GIVE ME JESUS!

GoGod