Calling on Heaven: Pure Hearts and Open Hands with the Huffs

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Passion and Purpose podcast with myself and my lovely wife,

Shelly Giglio. I'm so excited to be doing this with you today.

Thank you.

And our amazing friends, Christian and Sadie Huff.

Love them.

Hey, hey.

Hey, guys.

Happy to be here.

We love y'all. Happy to be here.

It's so good to see your faces. Time has gone by quick. It's three months since we walked out of

the bins and something like that today, tomorrow, the next day. And it feels like in some ways like

it was three years ago. And in some other ways, it feels like it was three hours ago. Been kind

of an interesting journey coming out of it all. And I'm so glad to see you guys and get to talk

a little bit about what happened there, what we experienced there, Passion 2024, and whatever

else is going on in life.

Some special days. It's always nice to revisit things that are highlight reels in your mind and

yeah.

I think Passion 2024 is that for all of us. So what a joy to get to talk about that today. Any day

I get to talk about it is a joy.

That's so true. And actually, I just interviewed right before this podcast. I was on the phone

with Matt Chandler doing a different podcast, and we ended up talking about Passion. I mean,

it just it comes up in conversation. And I don't think he wasn't there this year,

but he had watched, you know, a lot of it online and seen it since. And it's hard not to,

not to bring into a lot of conversations because it was such a marking moment. It really was. And

it's, it's crazy. It does in some ways feel like a long time ago, but then you can replay it like

it was literally yesterday. Remembering so many moments that it just kind of felt like time stood

still.

Incredible. And I, I love that we've gotten to do it together. You guys have been on the journey

with us for this last season, really of Passion and helping pray about what's next and helping

seek, helping us seek the Lord.

As to what steps to take. And it's just been incredible seeing you guys blossom and bloom.

Sadie, you posted the other day about speaking on Winter Jam, or maybe you just texted. I think

you posted it and then you texted it maybe. And I was just blown away because we were there that

night. It's one of the first times that you had preached in front of a bunch of people.

And gosh, that seems like a long, long time ago now. How old were you when that was happening?

I was 19.

19. And I'm 26 now. So yeah, that was...

About to be 27.

About to be 27. Thank you for that. Yes. And so that was like...

Reminder.

Thank you for that.

That wasn't a slight.

Hey, it's okay.

Guess what's coming, Sadie? It's going to be your birthday.

Every year is getting better. Every year is getting better. That's good.

That's right. It only gets better.

It was like seven years ago that I posted that. And I, it was really sweet when that

popped up on Facebook because I had just posted that on like my private Facebook to like my

friends and family. And I said something along the line.

I'm like, this was one of the best days ever. I got to preach, which was amazing at the time.

That was just like the first time I was ever doing that. And it was so, I mean, it's still

the best thing and so exciting every time, but that, that was one of the first. And then

I said, and it was amazing because two people I've looked up to and learned so much from

Louie and Shelly Guglio were there and it was just wild. And I had a shirt on that said

best day ever. And I was like, my shirt was true. And I just think about that like seven

years ago.

I had no idea, um, one, how close that we would get to y'all and how much y'all would

really become, um, influences in our life. And then two, just the journey we get to take

alongside of y'all with passion. I would have never in a million years to guess that the

next seven years would hold that, but I'm so grateful for every single thing that the

Lord had because, uh, I still feel that, that giddy way, getting to share the word and getting

to do life alongside of you guys. That's a true blessing. So yeah, who knew at 19, I

did not know what was to come.

I think that's so cool though. Just hearing you say that, because I feel like people think,

you know, I'm young. I can't really imagine what's next. And you just said, I would have

never imagined, but God is just writing some amazing stuff and he's writing it for every

single person. And, you know, you're not the exception. You're the rule. If, if we're walking

with God, then he has an amazing story for us. And it doesn't take a lot of time sometimes

for that story to start coming into fruition.

Yeah.

You know, you were 19 and, and I think you were just figuring out kind of how to communicate.

You were just figuring out if this was a path that God was really calling you to be on and

just think about that trajectory from there to standing at passion, delivering messages

on God's behalf to people that you love so dearly in your age group of people, just how

significant God has used your life, Sadie. And I just think it's important to remember

that you're not the exception.

That's good.

But that God is writing.

That kind of story. Maybe it's not standing on platforms at passion for every single person,

but he has something as significant for them as he does and had for you. So I love, I love

that it was a short period of time, relatively speaking. That's awesome.

Yeah. And I love that you said that. And I hope people listening right now that if I can

just encourage you to really believe what Shelly just said, because I think that that

was kind of a shift in me at 19 was I was in some ways doing it, you know, I'm on the

stage and I'm preaching.

I wasn't believing what God was doing or even could do in my story at the time. And

I remember whenever I got off stage and Louie, you looked at me and you said, God's going

to use you to speak to your generation. And I think I was like computing what you were

saying in my mind, like, what? Like, really? And yet I'm kind of doing it, but I wasn't

really believing it or seeing it yet. But I think you saying it like affirmed something

in me that I already knew because, you know, God, God made me that way.

He's spoken that to me. But then when you said it, I was like, could, could I actually

do that? Like, could I actually be all that God created me to be? Could I actually do

it at 19, you know? And then you asked me to, of course, speak at the Passion Summer

Night. And I was like, okay, I guess I am doing it. But just, I say that to say, I remember

there's something clicking in me at that time being like, wow, like He sees that in me now,

not for like maybe one day, but now, like right where I'm at, at 19, that God's going

to use me.

And so if you're listening and like Shelly said, that's not just for me or that's not

just for the platform, that's for wherever you're at in life, that God put something

in you for now, for today, that He's using right where you're at. And when you believe

that, oh man, it activates something and you're, you're ready to go, you know, before you have

it all figured out. Like you said, I was learning how to communicate. I'm still learning how

to communicate. But I love that you said that. And that's very similar to what y'all said

to me.

27 years ago.

I love it.

I love it. You know, I think that a lot of times we get tripped up trying to figure out

what, what are we supposed to be doing with our lives? And I think God wants to make it

clear and He will. I know He made it very clear to me when I was around 19, that I was

going to be communicating the story of God to my generation. But the other side of it

is that when you're in community and in the community of believers, people will recognize

and speak out over your life what you're supposed to be doing.

It's true.

So listen to the people or put the right people around you or put yourself around the

right people and let them affirm because people can, I could see, everyone could see

that in your life and in your, your lives together. And so listen to what people are

saying. They're helping you know what God wants you to do.

That's true. That's kind of what happened to you.

Yeah, it is kind of what happened.

And so I said to Christian, I said, I love your sports ministry. And Christian was like,

do I have a sports ministry?

What?

Do I have a sports ministry?

It was a big football game on and I wanted to go to a restaurant that had TVs and we

went to a super nice steakhouse and I couldn't watch my game.

Yeah, it was out there. I spoke and this pastor, Christian said, can we go to a restaurant

that has TVs so I can watch football? And I was so embarrassed, of course, that he asked

that to this pastor. And then the guy goes, sure, I love this sports ministry of yours,

which then got them into the conversation.

I had the game on my phone underneath the table.

And it's just, it's actually cool.

Because one thing lets you know that I had a great conversation. So anyways, I say it to say

even Christian and I's story is so different of how that came about. But someone saying something

in us that we were passionate about and drawing it out of us. So I love that.

You guys have been, as you were saying, with us on the journey for a while now with Passion.

But something was different about Passion 2024. The whole year, the whole approach to

the bins was different. The bins was different. What was different about the whole thing?

Gosh, I feel like that's a loaded question.

It is a loaded question.

Because I honestly think if we sat here and the mics weren't here and the cameras weren't here,

we could talk about that all day. You know, what was different? Passion's always been amazing.

Every year at Passion Conference has been life-changing and has been, I mean, life-changing

for many. And then also just re-strengthening and sharpening iron, you know, for so many as well.

It's been an anchor to start your year off.

And so every year at Passion has been amazing, but this year certainly was different.

And I think you knew that it was going to be different.

Y'all knew it was going to be different, by the way, that I think y'all even led differently

leading up to it, if that's fair to say and okay to say. The way that y'all brought all

of the speakers and worship leaders to Austin, Texas to actually be together and to pray

and the way that you led. I mean, I remember sitting in that room with everyone and, you know,

you laid out just a very straightforward kind of challenge to everyone about going into Passion

this year and not preaching a message that was as big as the stadium, but truly just share what is

on your heart and share from the scripture. And then you were telling us, you know, don't go in

there and preach this message that's trying to match the stadium, but really just share what's

on your heart. And you just kept emphasizing the purity of this and coming in and just,

you know, truly yielding to the Spirit and whatever God wants to do. And it's not that

you haven't always said those things. It's just that this year, I think there was a conviction

in everyone's heart to truly, truly hear that and respond to that. And I'll say even in

my life, leading up to Passion each year, since I started getting to preach at Passion,

it's such an overwhelming thing to prepare a message for Passion Conference because,

you know, you're speaking to so many people at one time and there's such a weight that

comes with that. And you want to make sure that what you've prepared means something. And it's

truly what the Lord has for that moment. And so I am like always so over-prepared going into Passion.

Well, this year, it was as if God would not even let me do that. Like there was no, like,

inspiration, I guess I should say, when I was thinking on what to preach. As I would pray,

there was almost silence. Like I just didn't feel like this is the Passion message.

And normally I would have that like at the beginning of the year and think about it all

year long. And this year, here we are in Austin and end of November, a month before Passion.

And I truly like, I don't have it. Like, I'm just like, I don't really know what it is.

But I think even in that, it was the Lord not allowing anything be out of performance.

Everything had to be pure hearted. Everything had to be from the heart, seeking Him like on

your face, Lord. I don't want to say anything that is not what you have.

In this moment. I mean, it was just such a purity, even in the process of preparing to walk into

Passion. So I think that part of what made Passion different, I think the purity in the room was so

felt. But even as someone who was invited into the process of preparing for Passion, that was so

different. It was so pure and a refining process for me. And so stepping into it and seeing every

single person preach out of the purest place of their heart. There wasn't one person,

trying to perform. There wasn't one person trying to preach the best message or say a cool thing or

a cool thought. It was the most authentic to the heart of a generation on what we feel like the

Lord wants us to hear and revive in us in this time. And then you felt the response from those

messages and what God was doing from the worship and the way that everyone was worshiping, the

purity that they were worshiping in. And so again, I could probably, I don't know, I don't know,

probably talk about that all day long and unpack that more. But I think overall, to sum it up into

a word, I think just the purity of it was different. Yeah, because it's hard to articulate it in a way

that doesn't make it feel like, you know, speakers in the past or, you know, worship lineups in the

past or any less than what was this year. But there was just something different about this

year, whether it was the prep leading up to it, which I think we can all maybe acknowledge that

that was a huge factor in it. But even just some of the worship songs that

were part of it, were part of it. And so I think that was a huge factor in it.

You know, that passion put together. One of my favorite moments from passion was when Mel

let follow from the piano and just the simplicity of it. And then, you know, obviously the song

Landon sang that my father has, I can't remember the title of it. That might be the title of it.

But just even that song, The Lord Will Provide, my father has it. It was a working,

it was a working title. But just even just the worship songs and just the flow of everything

from, you know, Sadie to Ben.

And then Levi, I think.

Even the Asbury pastor.

And it's hard to articulate whether that's how much intention and planning, you know,

went into it on the back end or which I do think that that factors into it. But

I don't know, it was just something about the way that God moved in those couple of days was just,

it was a tangible, maybe difference than what we've experienced before. But I think we've

experienced things like that before. But I don't know, it just felt simplistic. No one was trying

to, you know, do too much. And I think that that really showed through.

You know, the worship and the messaging. And even in the prep, we talked about,

Louie, you kind of pitched it to where be planning to speak the first night or second morning,

but you actually might have to pivot. So I think everyone had just that willingness to

humble themselves and fit the schedule if there needed to be a shift. So I think everyone just

willingness and cooperation and humility leading up to it, but also while being there

played a huge factor. Plus everyone staying for the whole conference and being at

the meetings and the prayers.

It was a unified heart.

Throughout the whole thing. Unified through people on the back end and unified through

everyone in the stadium, all 60,000. It was a unified hunger for the Lord to show up in a way

that only He could.

Yeah. And this little collection of podcasts around Passion 2024, we've said a bunch of

different times that God does what He, what God wants to do through whoever He wants to do it

and whatever amount of time He has to do it in.

Mm-hmm.

And so sometimes...

Sometimes things go exactly like you think they're going to go and it's powerful and

Holy Spirit led and God moves. But sometimes it goes different than what you thought it

was going to go. And we just wanted to be open-handed. But yet everybody did speak

relatively when they were supposed to. The only person who I wasn't sure if she was going

to speak or not was Christine Kane, because some things were just going off in the spirit

world and worship. And I was like, I don't know where this is going to go. And I'm not

sure.

I don't know.

And she was the perfect person to be right there at that moment, because I don't think anybody

really cared who did what. It was more, I want God to move. And I just want to say one more time,

thank you, Jesus, for the way you've been stirring in this generation. And

thank you to Rich Wilkerson Jr. for texting me one day and saying, hey, let's go to Asbury tonight.

And us doing it on, you know, super short notice and spending an entire night there,

watching God.

And coming back from that and knowing if you can do that in a chapel in Wilmore, Kentucky,

you can do that in the bins in Atlanta, Georgia. And praise God, He wants to move right now in

this generation. And He's doing it everywhere through people who just have their hands open,

as Shelley says all the time, and are saying, yes, we'll prepare. Yes, we've planned. Yes,

we're not, you know, shirking our responsibility.

Because we're being led by the Spirit. We're ready and prepared. But we also know that we

want you to come and move in such a way that everybody in this stadium knows that God is in

this place. And I'm with you, Christian. It's not about comparing one thing to the other.

It's just about knowing what we experienced was real. And I think any stadium worker,

any concession worker, any,

a contractor who was in that stadium knows they were in the midst of something very holy

and very powerful.

Yeah, I love that. I was reminded, because I think we've had about three months now to try

to put words around passion. And do you find yourself still struggling a little bit? I do.

Just to go, what am I trying to say exactly about what God did? And I guess the beauty of that is

that you can't fully describe, because of the mystery of God, the mystery of God.

You have to almost just say, you needed to be there, because I can't express fully in words or

language what we encountered of God. It was other. It was something that just words can't quite

describe. But I've been thinking about just phrases, and I'm big on just quotes of things

that are significant. And I was reading a Bonhoeffer book at some point, and this quote—

I like how you just threw that in.

No, it's been a while back.

Back in my reading days. No, I still read some. But it was just a profound book about his life.

And one of the things, one of the quotes that was in there, it says,

we must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.

And I think it's exactly what y'all are talking about. We were not ill-prepared.

We were completely prepared. We were as ready as we knew how to be,

so that then God had so much freedom

in all of us.

To tap us on the shoulder, or to put a word in our mouth, or to give us something in our heart

when we walked on the stage that we didn't know we were going to need, that He knew He wanted to

deliver in the moment. And I just feel like it wasn't the lack of preparation that got us ready

for that. It was the over-preparation of saying to God, I want to be as ready as I can be, as

tuned in with You as possible, as dialed into Your voice so that I can hear it as I could possibly

know. So that when you do have a moment, you can say, I want to be as ready as I can be. And I

was in that moment with me to say, hey, it's You. And this even happened. I was supposed to lead

one of the hosting moments the second morning, and it was kind of a contentious moment a little

bit with Louie and I, because he was like, now, are you leading it? And I was like, no,

I don't think I'm supposed to. I'm going to do this little interview with Marla later,

which ended up being, I thought, incredible. She's incredible. But then Louie led that moment,

and that's where the whole Revelation 4 passage first emerged into the passion moment was in that

moment. And I think it was us trying to figure out, I'm not just going to go in the slot that

was designed for me. I'm going to ask God, do you want me to lead in this moment? And as we waited

on Him, then He filled in those blanks with who He wanted, with what He wanted. And when Louie

walked up to the stage and started reading Revelation 4, and then we saw how passion

played out of that passage for the rest of the time. I mean, that's what I want.

Right? That's what we've prayed for. When we called on heaven, this is what we were asking

heaven for, is for divine interruption to just say, hey, God is in our midst, so anything is

possible here. And we want to be dialed into that so that we can just follow what He says.

Yes, exactly. And, you know, it was so cool whenever, because we've been watching the Agnes

Day video almost every night because the girls love it and like love to worship before we go to

bed. And so I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just,

I just turn it on. And, you know, since I've watched it so many times now, you notice different

things at different times whenever you watch it, just out of the response of worship that people

were having. And so when I was there that day, I really noticed, one, the thread of Louie reading

that the day before, and then Cody, you know, singing that and them having the words that

Carrie and Cody's set. And then the next day, here goes Christian into this. And, you know,

I think it's like really crazy. Sometimes,

when you are, when you do get to be a part of some of the planning, the prepping, when you know,

this was not planned or prepped, and this is like happening. And so I'm sitting there just like

watching this play out. And I'm like, this is amazing. God, like you're writing this story,

and this is so beautiful. So then, you know, everyone's worshiping and then Christian gets

on his knees and he gets on his face. And then Brett gets on his knees and he gets on his face.

And then one by one, and then in the back, you know, there's someone on their face and then

people are starting to lay down. And I've never seen that. I've never seen that.

Something like that in worship. I've seen maybe glimpses of, you know, people expressing

themselves in worship in pure ways, but that was just different. It was like, no one saw someone

else do it. It just happened and it just fell. And then what was like so amazing and what I love,

that's my favorite part of watching the video, is when Christian starts reading Revelation,

and he's reading it. And then he gets to the part, and it's almost as if he didn't even expect to

read this. Like it surprised him when he said, and they fell and they're falling. And he's like,

you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.

And then when he said, and they fell on their face like a dead man,

but like, and he starts crying because he realizes that he's in that narrative in this current

moment that he is experiencing a glimpse of what it will be like to be in the presence and the

glory of God. And it's like, he's reading a story of almost like the story he's currently living

and knowing that it's just a foreshadow, knowing it's just a glimpse of a moment of that.

And I love, I love that part. Every time I watch,

I watch the video because I think, God, would we all find ourselves in moments in this life

in the narrative of the story, you know, of the story of Jesus, of the story of what we're living

in, you know, your kingdom coming to earth. And he experienced that and we all did in a moment.

And I think we can experience that in different ways throughout our life. It doesn't have to be

in a conference moment when something like that happens. God can do that in your moment right now,

listening to this podcast.

When you find yourself like, oh, I'm in this narrative, like I'm in this story. And just

watching that each night has been very powerful. And so if you haven't seen the Agnes Day video,

obviously go watch the video because it's amazing how it translates, even watching it on a screen,

the power behind what we were experiencing in that moment.

Yeah. No power is lost in that video, which I love.

It's so true.

And I mean, we make the videos and so it's not complimenting myself,

it's really just saying, you know, we prayed a lot that God would be able to use this moment

to people who weren't in that stadium to communicate the same truth that we experienced

in that stadium together. And somehow the power of God lands in that video in such a profound way.

When you watch people respond to God, you yourself respond to God differently just by

seeing somebody surrender, by watching.

They let go of every bit of shame that they've been carrying. And it's like, I'm standing here

or sitting here in my living room watching that and experiencing some of my own freedom.

Thank you, God.

Michael W. Smith wrote that song decades ago, I think in his basement,

worshiping the Lord. And it has obviously brought heaven to earth many, many, many places and times.

And so if you go looking for the Agnes Day video, you're going to find a bunch of them.

Several.

The easy link is just to go to Passion Music's YouTube channel,

and you'll find the one we're talking about. And you can experience the same. And I'm so glad

the team here, it was fun, guys, when we were working on the album,

Colon Heaven. And we're trying to, what do we do with this song? You know, it's 20 minutes long.

What are we going to do? And so we tried a couple of different edits, a nine minute version and a

13 minute version and a this or that, and tried all these different things. And finally, we got a

there's no law against putting a 20 minute song on a record. So thank goodness we're not doing CDs

anymore, because that would have been a double or a triple CD for Colon Heaven. People are definitely...

I think it's almost 95 minutes of music.

Yeah, and that's the last two songs are a half hour.

So it's pretty awesome.

Pretty special.

And it's on repeat in our house. I have to say all of the songs, like Christian said,

the song Mel led, and then Lord Will Provide. There's so many good ones. He Who Is To Come,

all of them. I mean,

again,

what is different about Passion? Even just this album was just something different and new and

beautiful and so good. And I've always loved the Passion albums, but y'all really captured it so

well this year. It was so amazing. And I have to say about the random moments of, not random,

I would say intentional moments about the Holy Spirit calling you up. This was something I don't

think I've talked about, like publicly anywhere, but it was really cool because I was not supposed...

I didn't know that I was going to be leading the

moment for the people in Peru that night. So they're like, Sadie, will you go up there and

kind of do one more push for it? And I was like, sure. Yeah. Because obviously I'm passionate about

it, but I just hadn't planned to be in that moment. And so I get, I'm like sitting side stage

and I'm like thinking like, okay, what am I going to say? And then I'm like, oh, I need my Bible.

Like I can't go there without my Bible. So I get the person beside me and I was like, do you mind

like running up there and grab my Bible? Like Christian will have it. So she brings it and I

open it and then I read.

What I wrote in my Bible when I got my Bible that I had like never said or shared, or I just

wrote that in like my private time with the Lord and never really went back to it. And I was like,

this is really good. And this might really help some people. And so anyways, I get up there and

then I just read that. And it's just been so amazing because I get tagged in that literally

every day, like since that moment. And I have people tag me all the time. One, like just

resharing that moment. But two, they wrote it in their Bible. Like so many people have written it

in their Bible. And I'm like, that is so cool in such a like spirit-led moment. Because one,

I didn't even know I was going to go up there. Two, I didn't know what I was going to say.

Last minute, 30 seconds before walking up there, grab my Bible, open it. It was like,

this feels right. And so like, that's what I mean.

But I just think that's the Lord leading. He just knew. He knew what people needed to hear.

And 100%.

Obviously, He's more intent on what we're going to do than we are.

Yeah.

And so I think sometimes it's like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Sometimes when we don't have everything all scripted out and planned and,

you know, right in our minds and making sense to us, that God is able just to say,

hey, I'm going to lay something on your heart.

So true.

And it's going to be last second. You're going to look in your Bible. It's going to be there.

You wrote it a long time ago. You hadn't thought about it since. But I know it's there.

So true.

So I'm going to remind you so that you can see it, so that people can hear it.

Because that's really what I want my people to respond to in this moment. So

I think passion was just made up of a ton of those.

It's great.

It's like one right after the other, right after the other.

Yeah. I think if we sat here long enough, we could remember all of them. I've forgotten a few of them.

Man, that was the coolest moment.

It was.

And now hearing you tell the backstory of it is even cooler. So you did eventually get a talk.

You didn't have one in Austin, but you eventually decided you were going to do an overview of

scripture from the beginning to the end.

I loved it. I loved it.

How did all that happen? When did it click? When did you know that's what

you were supposed to do? And talk about that message a little bit.

Yes. So, you know, I say that I did not have like what I was going to share. And honestly,

I will say probably back in October, I felt like the Lord gave me this prompt to tell his story,

like tell the story. And I felt like I was supposed to share the story of the Bible.

But in my mind, that felt impossible. Like, how do you do that? And, you know,

30 minutes. And I don't even feel like I would be the one to do that. Like if everyone up there,

everyone else is like a pastor or went to school for this or like has preached for way longer and

knows the Bible so much more in depth than I do. And I just felt like of all the people that

that one should not be me. But then I felt like the Lord just kept saying, like, tell my story.

And also just kind of reminding me that I love telling people's stories. That's why I've done

a podcast for five and a half years. I, everybody that comes on a podcast,

I study their life. I study their story. I dive into their life just so that the time we have

together, I can highlight the best of their story. I'm going to have a great conversation.

So I kind of felt like the Lord was prompting me to do that for the Bible. And I just didn't feel

like I had enough time to do that. And so instead of like using the time I had, I just was like

putting it off thinking he would give me another idea or another prompt. I'll wait you out, guys.

I'm just going to wait this one out. So in Austin, the time was really ticking. And I felt like I

got to have something.

And so I would try to pull different parts of, as I was studying, I'm just going to focus on this,

and this will be its own message. And I kept feeling back to the story, back to the story.

So after Austin, I started working on how to tell the story. Oh my gosh. I, how many times?

I couldn't even, I don't even know. Reworked it and reworked it and reworked it.

I heard a lot of them.

Christian heard a lot of them.

You've been really blessed, Christian. Really blessed.

Thank you, Christian. And my mom for listening.

I'm just going to stop sharing the story.

And I'm just going to stop sharing the story.

I'm going to stop sharing the story.

And I'm just going to stop sharing the story.

And I'm going to stop sharing the story.

Why it felt hard is because I felt like I don't want to say, I can't get stuck anywhere for too long.

I don't want to say anything that goes over someone's head that hasn't been in church long enough that they go,

wait, what? Totally confused.

Or I don't want to say something that feels like I dumbed down anything of the significance of what the story is.

I don't want to say anything that goes into some controversial thing or some theological discussion.

I'm just trying to tell the story and help people to understand,

like, the incredible story that this is and how we find ourselves in it

and the power from start to finish and the thread.

And so finding that thread and that middle ground, honestly, was like the best thing ever for my life

because I got to study it in a way that I hadn't before.

And I fell in love, so much more in love with the scripture and the story and God as I studied about it.

And I ended up going, because like I said, I hadn't gone to seminary school

and I hadn't necessarily probably read all the books that I should.

Again, like been a pastor.

And so I was like, how can I learn like this fast?

And so I watched all every single Bible project video in one month.

And it was amazing because I think sometimes like you, you know, you watch one, you watch one, they're encouraging.

But I have told everybody now, like, watch all the Bible project videos from start to finish.

And if you can, in a short amount of time, it's so great because you're remembering the last book and the last book.

So you're getting the story as a whole.

It was so beneficial to me.

And my life and my faith.

So by the time I got up there, I had like, I had nailed down kind of like how I was going to do it.

But I never one time and like rehearsing it, did it perfectly.

I never did it right.

It was always too long or too short or something was missing.

And that was the only time I felt like I did it exactly the way that I wanted to.

As far as like it overflowed out of the passion of my heart.

I did not expect to get emotional about it.

But at the end of the day, I was like, I'm going to do it.

And at that time, I had just spent a month falling in love even more with the story that I got emotional by how overwhelmed I was that this is true and that I want you to get this and believe this.

So the outpouring, like it was so it was so huge for just me in my own walk.

And I think that that bled through and was seen in that moment as I was able to share.

And what was really cool, speaking to the Holy Spirit, writing all these stories, is there were two things I almost kept in.

And the story and last minute, I felt like the Lord just kind of removed it like you don't have to share that part of it.

One of them was Ezekiel when the dry bones came to life and I took it out.

And then Earl, right before his message wasn't even planned during.

Yeah, he brought the whole word.

Yes, the whole passage.

So that was the first one.

The second one was about the feast.

And it was in Deuteronomy.

Then Christine goes and preaches on the scripture that I took out.

Two things that I decided, I guess I don't really have to focus on.

I'll skip that.

That I had studied a pretty good bit in, but took it out.

They did it.

And so like, it was so cool.

It was so cool.

It's awesome.

It really is awesome.

And one of the things, and we talked about this, that I love the most is that it kind of wasn't from the theologian standpoint.

So it wasn't the pastor that had the most experience telling the story of God.

It was you telling your peers as though you would be telling someone's story.

So great.

And it felt like it was so much better received in some ways that it came out of the mouth of someone that they sure love and respect, which is how people feel about you, Sadie.

But also you're kind of them, you know, and so they could see themselves in you in a way that didn't feel like, oh, well, when I'm 60 and when I have all this experience and when I've read the scripture a million kajillion times, then I'll be able to do this.

Yeah, I think people saw themselves as more ready.

To stand up and take their place in the story of God and to tell his story.

You're not telling your story.

You weren't telling all your opinions about God's story.

You were telling God's story.

And every single one of us can study enough to do that.

Yeah, I love it.

The story of God does not belong to the pastors.

And obviously, I've got a lot of learning and have done a lot of, you know, graduate school and a lot of studying and have read a lot of books.

But the story of God doesn't belong to the theologians.

And the pastors, the story of God belongs to the people of God who are written into the story of God.

And it was really cool.

Then at the end, you did a little whiteboard session.

Walk us through that super fast.

That was cool.

Yeah, it was super fast.

I just wanted to do that.

And it felt so simple.

And part of me was like, you know, do any of this.

But then I was like, I really want to give people an easy way and an accessible way of telling the story who, again, don't feel qualified.

Who don't feel like they know it all.

I'm like, look, if you understand the gospel and you understand what it means that Jesus came down to this earth and He died on the cross and He was buried.

And then three days later, He rose and ascended to heaven and invites us into that story.

And we're to be telling that story.

This is the simplest way to write it.

And we wrote this my whole entire life in the tradition that I grew up in.

This was a very popular thing to write out the arrow coming down and the cross and then the two and then the arrow going back up and they were coming down.

And I literally wrote that online.

Like every single paper ever that I did in school.

And I still, you know, find myself doodling it on all the papers.

But it's such a great conversation point because people can say, oh, what's that?

Or I can say, hey, I can just draw it out for you.

And it's a great way to open up the story of the Bible.

And that kind of came off of the first thing I wrote was a question that I got from a letter that I received in the mail one day.

Shortest letter ever got.

Most probably impactful convicting letter I got when a girl just simply asked me, how do you know God is real?

Practical answers only.

And of course, I share the story in the message about me asking Louie that question because I thought he might answer it better than me.

And he did.

And he just said the Bible, which led me.

That's why I did the overview of the Bible, because if you don't know the Bible, then that wouldn't be a practical answer for you.

But if you know the Bible and you know the gospel, that is the most practical, powerful, only answer for you on how do you know God is real?

And so that was what I was attempting to.

Unpack and answer the question of and felt like I finally answered her question, but it couldn't be done in a letter.

It had to be done a couple years later in a message.

Christian, I hope she saw it.

I love both of you guys input into this journey.

We're on and oftentimes yours will be toward the end of the conference and you'll just say something for like five minutes.

And it is just so powerful and part of it is your story because your life was really impacted.

That passion and your life has been changed by the power of Jesus.

And so again, it's not this older person who's got all the degrees.

It's someone who looks like the person sitting in the row right in front of them talking about how they've gone from one way of life to a whole new way of life.

Yes, that's great.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, no, I mean passion has, you know, obviously changed my life pre being a part of it and also being a part of it and being behind the scenes and close up.

And, you know, I think this past passion was one of the most impactful ones for me getting to be a part of it and yeah, be up close to it and be behind the scenes of it.

But yeah, going back to my freshman year college was just a moment in my life where it was such a marker because God had done some things in my life leading up to it.

But there were a few moments where it actually fell on good soil and it had fallen on different types throughout, you know, the couple months and years that I've been trying to follow Jesus.

And for passion, it was really one of those moments.

Where I truly learned, you know, really just that idea of accountability and community because before that throughout high school, I didn't have any friends who were pursuing the same thing as me who, you know, had any kind of conviction or to confess things with because, you know, that was not, you know, that was not manly or all the things.

And especially growing up the way that I grew up, just Methodist and all those different things, we didn't, you know, I didn't have much of a framework of what it looked like to truly follow Jesus every day.

But for me, it was just all built up on a Sunday and I didn't know what it looked like to have godly friends or to confess things.

And, you know, James talks about the power of just confession and leaving passion.

That was really just the first moment where I had seen a glimpse of what it looks like to do life with other people.

And yes, at this past passion, I just kind of felt like God saying that of all these messages are great.

All these worship songs are incredible.

You can feel something.

But if you don't.

If you leave that here, then you're not going to be productive.

You're going to probably continue to be inefficient.

You're not going to fully grasp what all God can do in your life.

But if you surround yourself with people that can keep you accountable and that can check in on you, you know, and not the overbearing sense of, you know, people putting shame on you for mistakes because we're all going to stumble.

But having somebody that you can call back to a moment with because passion is such a huge moment for people.

And I think sometimes that can be the thing.

For people, you know, you look back and your only faith is based off of one thing.

You know, I think that's why we always talk about spiritual highs.

And I think people get these spiritual highs because you don't act on it after it.

And I think one way you combat that is you surround yourself with people that can encourage you and that can rebuke you, that can help you when you're stumbling.

So, yes, I just kind of felt led to share that.

I remember.

So Christian is not like his.

He is not.

And for all like with the microphone on the stage, that is not like what he necessarily loves to do.

He's more of a one on one person.

He does great in those moments, but that wouldn't necessarily be like what he's jumping at or he's not like begging to go on stage.

He's like, I'm actually totally fine over here.

And in that moment, when you asked him to go up there and share a little bit and encourage people, it happened to be right after the same moment.

Like right after.

I kept telling Brad, I was like, I do not need to go.

Christian was like, no, I do not need to do this.

I do not need to do this.

I was like, come on.

I was like, no, Brad.

And I'm so glad that Brad brought you up there for that moment because it was like the perfect thing to say that like, hey, what you're experiencing right now, it's powerful.

This is amazing.

But like if you don't share this with someone and actually like make this thing real, then then this would just be a moment that you experience, but it won't change anything for you.

So I just thought that that was such a spirit limit because I know you and I know you were probably trying to run.

Well, then I thought back to Ben's message.

Christian and I are a lot alike.

We are.

We are, Shelly.

We're a lot alike.

Well, because then I thought calling back to Ben's message of like, you know, the power, like this, just the parable of the sower.

Like what happens here could fall on different soil if you just tell somebody about it.

But if you, you know, but if you're intimidated or if you view that as weakness or if that, you know, you don't make that next step, then it could be choked up by the words of the world.

Or it could be, you know.

So it might not come to fruition.

But if if you have your those people around you, that could be the difference in the soil for you.

And I think sometimes we we don't, you know, fully understand that.

That's so good.

It's so crazy watching you guys grow together.

And you obviously are trying to figure out this thing of, you know, raising a family and still leading and being a voice to your generation.

But you released this devotional called How to Put Love.

Love First.

And I love that title and I love the heart behind it.

What was the inspiration, the kind of moment where you both looked at each other and said, yeah, we're going to do this?

Oh, man, that's so good, because, you know, people had just said to me and Christian, like, oh, y'all should write a relationship book.

And we'd be like, what?

Why?

Like, we don't we're like four years married.

We're like reading the relationship books.

Like, I don't I don't know if we have like a lot of advice to give.

And then my cousin.

Who is actually a marriage and family counselor.

He came to me and he said, Sadie, you should write a relationship book.

And I thought, you think I should write like you should know that I shouldn't write this because you're a marriage and family counselor.

And we've been married for four years and have two little bitty kids.

We need all the advice we can get.

So, no, like you share just your real experience on like what relationships looks like and the struggle that you go through.

And he's like, you're always so honest and so real with people.

You bring people into the realness of relationship.

You just share.

And I'll help bring more of that, like practical sound, you know, advice from more, I guess, you know, he has 10 years of experience of doing the marriage and family counseling.

And then he also said, and, you know, talk about your relationship with God.

And I was like, OK, well, that we can definitely do.

We can be real about the struggles of it and we can always lead people to the Lord.

And then we were like, you know, if we make this about love, then this is so much bigger than just relationship.

It's so much bigger than just marriage.

It's it's all relationships.

And really, it's about God.

And if our relationship with God is first and all of our relationships will be blessed.

And that's just that's just sound advice.

That's no matter what season of life you're in.

And so how to put love first is really about how to put God first in your life and how when you put God first in your life, each relationship is going to benefit from that.

And so, yeah, it's just very real.

I mean, we do we share that.

One of the misconceptions of it is that it's for like romantic relationships and it's really for community.

And I think that's one of the things that we need to be aware of is that we need to be aware of our relationships with God.

But yeah, we talk about a lot of mishaps that we've had in our life.

I expose myself to a lot of road rage and different situations where it was funny, actually, speaking of the road rage.

So we were like, OK, how do I identify when it's Christian or Sadie's voice?

So it literally says Christian or Sadie.

But we were joking that you really didn't have to say that because even reading it, you can tell when it's Christian.

It's easy to tell.

But no, but but also, too, you know, I think.

I think it's even like, you know, like what y'all were saying earlier about Sadie giving the overview of the Bible.

I think, you know, not to put us on a pedestal or whatever, but I think hearing stories from us about, you know, screw ups that we've had or things we've struggled with.

I think it provides a sense of relatability to people who maybe see us and think, oh, they're perfect or they don't like.

No, we have had I've I used to be a terrible person and I still mess up with things all the time.

And like, you know, hearing me maybe talk about an old lady.

Pulling out in front of me and me throwing my hands about her.

But then also God convicted me when I see she's old.

Like somebody reads that and like, oh, he struggles with the same thing I struggle with.

So there's a sense of like, but then in the story, we end up talking about, you know, how that conviction leads you to, you know, to furthering these other relationships and so on.

So I think, you know, there's a side of it, too, that, you know, you read it and there's a relatability to, you know, to to struggles that we both go through or things that we've messed up in the past.

We're in situations where we didn't put love first.

And this was the outcome.

And here's the outcome in situations where we did put God first.

So, yeah.

And it's cool because today, I mean, this will not be that probably when this episode releases.

But today was the end of our 90 day challenge from January 1st.

So today was our last day.

We've actually done a text thread for the last three months.

And every morning people get a video from us in our community leading people through devotionals and extra devotionals that our community is leading, which was so powerful.

And so fun to do.

And we're going to post all of those videos for people to just have 90 days of devotionals.

If you didn't go through that with us and want access to it.

And it's all free.

It's just an encouragement to people's day.

So we'll let everybody know whenever we post that.

But today was actually our 90th day.

That's incredible.

That's awesome.

A third of the year is over.

That's just blowing my mind as we're sitting here talking about it.

But praise God for all that has happened in these first few weeks.

And so glad we got to.

To experience it close up with you guys and with so many other people.

I mean, I'm really, really glad that there were tens of thousands of people to experience it with us and excited about the future, which we had a big announcement since we're all on here together today, but we're not quite there yet.

So, you know, people think this is easy, but I think you guys being behind the scenes with us and you have, you know, your own conference and you're you've got so much going on in your world as well.

But it's not easy doing any of this stuff.

And the first part and the hardest part is waiting on the Lord.

And it's the best part, but it's also sometimes the hardest part.

And we're getting a lot of questions now.

What about passion next year?

Why aren't you guys saying anything?

Well, we're just waiting on the Lord and waiting for him to clarify some things.

And we would like to know when we step, we're stepping where he has already stepped before us.

Beautiful.

Great.

Love you guys so much.

And so.

Good hearing the stories today.

My goodness, especially the one about you and what you wrote in your Bible.

I loved that.

It's really cool.

Well, we love you guys so much and are so encouraged every time we get to chat.

Thanks for having us on.

Yeah.

Thanks, everybody, for joining us on the Passion and Purpose podcast.

I know that God has put a passion in you, and that probably has something to do with what he wants you to do in this world.

That passion that is in there.

The thing that makes you wake up in the morning.

The thing that you can't stop thinking about.

That's God stirring in you a specific direction.

Purpose may be bigger than that.

And that is, what are you going to do with that passion?

What are you going to do with that burning desire, with that great ambition and idea?

And for me, that purpose is to point people to Jesus.

And so, discover your passion, but figure out how you can use it for the things that matter most.

Thanks for joining us.

With the Huffs on the Passion and Purpose podcast.

I'll see you next time on the Passion and Purpose podcast.