Lovin’ the Coast

Driscoll on the Coast night #1. Wow! What an incredible night!! Mark Driscoll spoke on Lovin’ the Coast.  He spoke on Exodus 20 (+ a stack of other Bible references) and the 10 commandments. He spent his whole time on #1 (You shall have no other gods before me) and #2 (you shall not make for yourself an idol…) specifically speaking about Idolatry and contrasting it with worship. The brilliant thing that Mark did was accurately diagnose the cultural context of the Central Coast.

As a non-Central Coast resident, he spoke about what he observed about the area. He summarised the idol of the Coast as the Idol of Comfort. This is our god. The Central Coast has a great love for the creation, but no love for the Creator. In the end, idolatry is really at the root of all sin.

In order for us to reach the Central Coast, he wanted us to: understand firstly the idols that our own hearts are prone to worship; secondly, upon reflecting on the death, burial, resurrection and redemption in Jesus understand that God can liberate Coastal people from their worship of false gods; thirdly, with humility, proclaim Jesus as the hero and not ourselves.

Here are 10 questions that we were encouraged to ask of ourselves. The answers could be indicative of idols that our hearts are clinging to…

1. What are you most afraid of?
2. Where do you run for comfort in hard times?
3. What makes you angry?
4. What makes you happy?
5. What has caused you to be disappointed with God?
6. What do you want most?
7. What do you boast of?
8. What do you sacrifice for?
9. Whose approval do you seek?
10. What one thing would you change? (If you were God for a minute)

Anyway. Killer night! Great music. Great preaching. Great vibe (tix were sold out). Dan lead the music well, Tim did a good job at MC and Mark spoke with good down-to-earth humour and solid conviction. I’ll let you know when I’ve uploaded the talks www.driscollonthecoast.com (and maybe video too…)

Were you there? How were you challenged?