Crazy Love Podcast

Do you ever read stories of judgment in the Bible and feel like God is overreacting? In today's message, Francis Chan helps us grasp the concept of sacredness in Scripture and applies it to our everyday lives in a surprising, convicting way.

Do you find yourself drawing life from a Christian leader, the things God has promised, or a sense of accomplishment? Or do you just want Jesus? In this second and final part of his classic message on John 15, Francis Chan keeps pointing us back to the reality of our dependence on Christ and that nothing is worth wanting more than Him.

It’s easy to stress over why the things we’re doing for God aren’t working. In the first part of this classic message, Francis Chan brings us back to the foundational truth of John 15: Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and we can do nothing apart from Him.

There is a sacredness to the ways God meets us and speaks to us in the dark valleys of heavy loss. In today’s episode, Francis Chan concludes his conversation with his good friend Ryan Takasugi, reflecting together on the lessons learned from the Lord in a season of deep grief.

Do you find yourself running on the hamster wheel of winning others’ approval to stave off insecurity? In today’s episode, Francis Chan shares the first part of a conversation with his long-time friend Ryan Takasugi on earning human approval over the frightening, liberating path of receiving the freely given love of God.

What’s the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the filling of the Holy Spirit? In today’s episode, Francis Chan invites us to cast off all unbelief and seek our Heavenly Father for the good gift He promised to give when we ask as His children.

Does spending time with God every day feel like a burden or obligation to you? In this classic message, Francis Chan brings us into the mind-blowing reality of what it means to meet with God and calls us to fight to keep our minds relentlessly focused on being with Him.

Scripture commands us to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, but it can be easy to start pursuing His good gifts in ways that are off. In today’s episode, Francis Chan encourages us to pursue the gifts of the Spirit, with a caution to stay fixated on what matters most to God.

Is grace something God came up with in the New Testament, or has it been His plan all along? In this fourth and final part of his series on Galatians, Francis Chan traces the incredible story of blood sacrifice throughout the entire Bible and helps us to see how the grace of God has been His design from the very beginning.

So many voices in our heads are constantly telling us what we need to do to be accepted by God. In this classic message from Cornerstone Church, Francis Chan helps clear away the fog that keeps us from seeing God’s grace and calls us back to the freedom that Jesus died to give us.

Have you ever let your mind be blown by the fact that God is in pursuit of you? In this second part of his Galatians series, Francis unpacks the story of God’s pursuit of the apostle Paul, and the same unbelievable grace that sets us apart from birth and pursues us today.

Is the Christian life all about the things we have to do? Or about what we get to do by God's grace? In this classic teaching, Francis Chan kicks off a series on Galatians exposing the arrogance of thinking we can work our way to God. Most of all, he calls us back to the core of the Gospel message: it's what God did in His grace, not what we do, that saves us.

Can you imagine anything better than sitting at the feast table in God’s Kingdom one day? Can you imagine anything more important? In this classic message from Cornerstone Church, Francis breaks down the parable of the great feast in Luke 14 and shows us why there is no valid excuse for declining the greatest invitation we could ever receive.

Too many of us feel vaguely guilty for not praying as much as we should – but do we have any idea how insane it is that through Jesus, we can talk to the Creator of the universe at any time? In this classic message, Francis walks us through the simple story of the persistent widow and the wonder of believing that we have God’s ear when we pray.

From our early years, we are shaped by a society and homes that often prioritize separation over togetherness. Sadly, this trend echoes within the Church itself. But in John 17, we encounter a profound prayer from Jesus. In today's episode, Francis Chan reminds us of the necessity for UNITY in today's culture and explores the significance of this prayer, diving into its profound implications for our lives and the Church today.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What is beautiful in God’s eyes?” In today’s episode, Francis and Lisa share about some of their struggles and failures in marriage, the beauty of a gentle and lowly spirit, and an unashamed declaration of what God says about marriage.

For those of us that have been married for a few years, you may have discovered that some marriage issues have nothing to do with your marriage. In today’s teaching, Francis and Lisa Chan share their greatest hope and a key to marriage that’s far more valuable than better communication skills or parenting strategies – it’s seeing God for who He truly is.

When you worship the Lord, how easy is it for you to forget about everyone else in the room and express yourself with all your heart to God without feeling self-conscious? For a lot of us, that can be difficult. In today’s message, Francis describes the depth of love that God has for His children and calls us to a joy that should blow our minds as we go and serve the Lord with gladness.

Do we really believe that God can do anything? Or do we make sure our strategies and resources are lined up just in case we need to fall back on them? In today’s message, Francis takes us through stories about the kings of Israel and Judah, and the power of the church in Acts chapter 2, to confront our hearts with a weighty question: Do we really believe that God will strongly support and do what only He can do through the one who fully trusts in Him?

In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as “Lord” over 700 times. But even though that term is used so frequently in scripture, do we truly understand the impact of that name? In today’s episode, Francis explains the foundational reality of what it means for Jesus to truly be our Lord – and why we should want Him to be our King.

Have you ever noticed how empty the messages of the world are? In contrast, as God’s ambassadors, we are called to fill the earth with His eternal message of life and hope. In this second half of Francis and David Platt’s shared session at Biola’s 2023 Missions Conference, Francis and David build on the theme of unity by exhorting us towards what should unify believers: an unwavering, unashamed commitment to the Word upheld by God’s people since ancient times, spoken by God Himself.

There is a direct, crucial connection between unity in the Body of Christ and the spread of the Gospel in the world. In this first part of a shared session at Biola’s yearly Missions Conference, Francis teams up with David Platt to unpack the mind-blowing invitation of God from the Gospel of John: to enter the oneness Jesus shares with the Father, and then share that unity with one another, so that the world may believe.

When you pray, how do you address God? Do you really take the time to let who He is to you sink into the core of your being? In today’s episode, Francis walks us through meditating on what it means to really approach God as our Creator, our Father, and our Bridegroom. In this message, there will be a few times when Francis stops to give time to pray and address God as who He is. We encourage you to pause the episode at those points and take the time to really go before the Lord and be blown away by who He is to you.

Many Christians put a high priority on the church believing and teaching the Word of God – but can we really claim to be standing for the truth without confronting sin? In this message from his time at Cornerstone Church, Francis calls believers to both hold up and live out the truth of God’s Word and lovingly stand for the purity of the Body of Christ.

Does it ever seem like the older you get, the less faith you have? We start our walk with the Lord with such a childlike excitement, but it sadly can change over time. In this week’s message, Francis challenges us to believe in a God that – even today – reveals Himself to His creation. We pray that this message stirs your faith and builds an expectation of the supernatural.

Welcome to the Crazy Love Podcast. As each day passes, it can feel like time is slipping away faster than ever before. It's easy to get caught up in the busyness of life and lose sight of what’s most important. None of us know how much time we have left. In this week's episode, Francis brings us through several parables and reminds us that there is no better time than now to start walking with Jesus. We hope this episode will inspire and encourage you, giving you a renewed understanding of the incredible worth of Jesus.

You probably know that God loves you – but do you really, deeply believe that He loves you? In this teaching, Francis opens up about a way that his perspective on God’s love often gets twisted, and invites us to trust in the Love that is so infinitely beyond our own.

In all of human relationships, marriage is the one expression that God wants to be a picture of Christ and the Church. That’s a high calling! In today’s episode, Francis and Lisa Chan share some of the lessons that they've learned about their marriage at the Antioch Marriage Conference. We pray that this message encourages you and helps you to see your marriage through the lens of the mission and Kingdom of God.

When we focus on only one aspect of who God is, we get dangerously close to heresy by having a lopsided view of Him. In today’s episode, Francis highlights an attribute of God he feels he’s neglected his whole life, and invites us to join him in drawing near to an incredible reality: God’s throne of grace.

What’s the treasure in your life that you can’t stop talking about? In today’s episode, Francis shares about one of his greatest treasures – the fear of the Lord – and walks us slowly, meditatively through Hebrews 12 towards a greater reverence and awe of the God we worship.

When you read scripture, it doesn’t take long to come across ideas that seem to contradict our natural logic - - things like God’s power being perfected in our weakness or the least will be the greatest in the kingdom of God. In today’s teaching, Francis unpacks Scripture’s counter-cultural wisdom and why it’s better to be at the house of mourning than at the best party.

If I asked you to name a miracle that’s recorded in Scripture, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The blind receiving sight, or the dead to life? In today's episode, Francis calls the church to seek God for a miracle only He can give: godly sorrow. We encourage you to listen in as Francis directs our hearts towards repentance, weeping over what grieves the Lord, and being the kind of "progressive" church that He desires.

When gathering together for worship, it’s good to minister to other people. Scripture commands us to look after the needs of those in the Body, but how often do we focus on ministering to the Lord? In today’s episode, Francis points us back to making what the Lord desires our highest priority: preparing ourselves for the moment we see His face, unashamedly declaring his truth, and ministering to Him with true worship.

The New Year is well underway, and many of us have set goals or made resolutions for things that we want to see happen in 2023. But, as Francis teaches in today’s episode, the New Year is a wonderful time to take a step back from your life and ask yourself: “Am I living with a reverence for God?” “Am I willing to obey whatever He’s speaking to me this year through His Word?” Like Paul instructed in the book of Philippians, we pray that this teaching encourages you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

In this, the final episode of the One Table Series, the Chans and Vitales share from personal experience of the lessons learned from pursuing unity in their own lives. How do you walk through the process of reconciliation when you’re the one who’s been hurt? Is repentance something that we just have to do when we’ve sinned, or is it a gift that God gives us to draw closer to Him and others?

In discussions about unity, it’s easy to get so caught up with side issues that we miss the very center of it all: Jesus, Himself. Today, as we continue the One Table series, Francis, Lisa, Vince, and Jo open their hearts to talk about who Jesus is to each of them, what they love about Him, and what it means for our unity when we move “beyond” Jesus to focus on other things.

Scripture clearly commands believers to pursue unity with one another - but what about those passages where it commands us not to associate with certain people? How do we discern if a potential point of division is a core doctrine or a disputable matter? Is it possible that our unity isn’t hindered by our differences, but actually requires them? Listen to Part 4 of the “One Table” series on the Crazy Love Podcast.

Join us as we continue with Part 3 of our “One Table” series where Francis and Lisa Chan along with apologists Vince and Jo Vitale unpack the topic of unity within the church. In today’s episode, Francis shares about his recent trip to Israel, the impact it made in his view of scripture, the beauty of what God is doing uniting both Jewish and Palestinian believers, and what it means to live with a longing to see the Lord’s return.

In the book of First Corinthians, Paul tells the church, “If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he should know.” (8:2) In other words, if we think we know it all, we really don’t know anything. So how do you know whether what you believe is true? Is it because you discovered it yourself and trust your own opinion? Or is there a better way? Francis and Lisa Chan unpack these questions with Vince and Jo Vitale in today’s episode – the second discussion in our “One Table” series.

Join Francis and Lisa Chan for a series of honest conversations with Vince and Jo Vitale about a seemingly impossible dream: unity in the Church. In this episode, the Chans and Vitales probe into some foundational questions around pursuing unity: How can we ask honest questions about what we or others believe, despite our fears of being judged by others or facing our own doubts? How can we walk in constant humility to learn from those different from us without compromising the essentials? Is it naive to hope that the Church could ever be united again around one table?

We are living in a time like no other in the history of the Church. In this message given at Antioch's World Mandate conference, Francis Chan shares his excitement over the things that God is doing in the earth, and exhorts this generation to leave aside the free-thinking of our modern world and anchor itself in the ancient truth of God that unites all believers.

In the Old Testament, whenever the temple of God was mentioned, reverence, fear, and honor quickly followed. There was a great understanding that in the Temple, in the Holy of Holies dwelt the very real presence of God. Now, imagine you were there. How would you respond? In this week’s episode, Francis Chan, not only reminds of this truth but points us to 1 Corinthians 3 to reveal a truth about us, the body of Christ, that is often overlooked.

It is said that the average person speaks approximately 7000 words a day. Has it ever crossed your mind that if this is true for you, what percentage of those words were used for the purpose that God designed? In this week’s episode, Francis Chan, brings us through scripture to remind us of God’s heart for our words and the purpose for them.

When Jesus established the Church in the New Testament, He created it to be unstoppable, powerful, beautiful, and different from the rest of the world. But for many, Sundays have become more religion and tradition than a place of worship. When you gather with your local church, what do you look for? Is it Jesus? In this week’s episode, Francis Chan encourages our hearts to seek Christ, that He would be our lifeline, the center of church and the center of our lives.

In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul prays that the church would be strengthened in the inner being, that God would do a miracle in their heart that would manifest itself in holiness and righteousness. In this week's episode, Francis Chan brings us through Scripture and reminds us how beautiful it is to know God and be known by Him.

One of the more beautiful Truths about God and man is that the Father loves us deeply, but the reality is, many people live as if this Truth wasn’t…true. In this weeks episode Francis Chan reminds us how deep the Father truly loves us and how this perfect love should be reflected in our gatherings as the Church.

When you read the story of the early believers in the book of Acts, what goes through your mind? The way they live amongst each other, the way they love one another, it seems beautiful but for many people, their experience of the Church looks like quite the opposite. In this week’s episode, Francis Chan takes through the story of the early Church in Acts 4 and encourages us to not only pursue living like the biblical church but to believe the Holy Spirit can do in us what He did in them.

For a lot of people, each day looks exactly the same. We wake up, we get dressed, we commute to work, we work, we go home, we sleep, and then it repeats all over again. When we live like that, it gets hard to see outside of our little bubble, and it’s quite easy to miss what God is doing everywhere else in the world. In this week’s episode, Francis Chan takes us to 1 Timothy 3 and shows us that there is a spiritual reality happening right now and if we pay attention, we’ll find our encouragement and bravery in the cross of Christ.

It’s not difficult to live a life in pursuit of our own dreams and ambitions and while those things aren’t bad in itself, when you consider the reality of who God is, it’s hard to know Him and walk away unchanged. In this weeks episode Francis Chan brings us to Ephesians 3:14-18 and reminds us to search our hearts and understand what it means to be filled with the fullness of God according to all the riches of His glory.

As human beings, it’s oftentimes much easier to talk about other people’s sin than it is to evaluate ourselves and assess our own lives in light of righteousness and holiness. In this week’s classic episode, Francis Chan reminds us to not flirt with disaster but to be diligent at taking every thought captive, addressing any sin, and bringing it to the cross.