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God Invites You to Embrace Struggle & Do Hard Things

Spiritual formation and growth don’t occur when we’re happy and safe. It happens when we deal with hardship and invite God into our lives. As a part of the family of God, we’re inviting you to join Senior Pastor Brian Tome and learn more about the role that struggle can play in your life as a follower of Jesus.

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    - Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads Church.
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    If you're joining us for the first time,
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    we are so glad that you're here.
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    Crossroads is one church, but with people
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    meeting all over the globe
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    in physical locations like this,
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    and in homes all over the place.
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    I actually want to give a special shout out
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    to some good friends of mine in
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    the Anywhere community meeting in places
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    like Portugal, in Spain and the UK.
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    Man, love you guys!
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    Thank you for sending us these pictures
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    of you guys with your guides. Love it!
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    - So wild we have people all over the world joining,
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    you said every continent except Antarctica.
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    - I know we're working on Antarctica, if you know anybody.
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    - You're out there, we know you. So, hey, I'm Chuck.
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    I'm one of the teaching pastors here,
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    and I'm really excited that you're joining us
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    too online to help kick off week 3 of the 10X Push.
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    So if this is your first time or you're catching up,
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    the 10X Push is this journey of sorts
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    that we're taking as a whole church together,
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    where for six weeks we've been really
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    focusing in on how does God want
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    to expand His territory tenfold
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    in our lives to grow us personally?
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    We've been talking about personal revival,
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    and then also, how does He want to do that
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    in our communities?
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    - Yeah, it's a really, really big deal.
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    And we're in week three of the Journey today,
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    but it is not too late. Hear me on this.
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    It is not too late for you to jump in with us.
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    You can actually go back,
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    and I'd highly recommend it because they've been amazing.
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    Go back and watch weeks one and two.
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    But we've got a quick recap for you
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    from last week right here.
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    - Now all of this soil is what it is,
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    like, soil is inanimate.
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    The only thing that's animate in this story
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    is God who's throwing the seed.
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    But there is the hint-hint when Jesus asks us,
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    which are we, defines who we are.
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    He's doing this so we can start to wonder,
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    "Hey, what have I got to do to break out my ground?
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    What am I going to do to defrock myself?
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    What can I do to choke out the thorns
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    before it chokes out my faith?"
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    Jesus then says this:
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    As for what was sown on good soil,
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    this is the one who hears the Word
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    and understands it.
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    He indeed bears fruit and yields,
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    in one case a hundredfold, and another 60,
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    and in another 30."
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    100, 60, 30.
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    That's what God wants for your life, by the way.
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    This isn't an organizational story
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    that Jesus is telling, it's a personal story.
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    Jesus doesn't want 10X for your life.
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    Good soil isn't 10X. It's 30, 60, 100.
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    - Man, that was so good hearing that last week
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    and just the encouragement in that.
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    You know, the scripture that Brian's referencing
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    is when Jesus talks about
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    these four different types of soil,
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    He talks about the path, rocky, thorny,
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    and then what does it look like to be good soil,
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    to allow God to move tenfold, and not just tenfold,
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    30, 60, 100 fold in our lives?
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    And the point at the end there is so powerful
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    because God wants more for you.
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    He wants more for your life,
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    all the way up to 100 fold.
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    And really though, that starts with us
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    and with the condition of our heart.
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    If you didn't get a chance to watch the message
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    last week, I encourage you to go back and watch it,
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    because it's such a great story from the Bible.
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    - Yeah. And as a church, we want to help
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    you identify how you can grow and how you can grow better.
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    There's actually a custom created
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    soil assessment for you.
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    And I know for me it was so helpful.
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    It's actually in your guidebook,
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    if you go to week two you'll find a QR code
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    that you can scan.
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    It'll just take you 5 or 10 minutes.
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    But for me, like, it honestly gave me
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    new language and new perspective on places
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    in my life and in my growth that just have felt stuck.
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    So my assessment told me that I was like the rocky soil.
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    There was, like, a fragility and things
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    that are actually blocking growth.
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    And man, this gives me new language
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    and maybe even some new habits
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    to push through that to go to a new place.
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    - Yeah, I can relate to that.
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    First of all, I love assessments.
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    I have to admit, I love, I love assessments, I do.
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    And but, man, mine was reflecting
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    that I was thorny soil
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    and that was really about being distracted.
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    So when I thought about that reflection,
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    the words worry and busy showed up a whole lot.
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    And so again, these are just ways that
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    we can lean in and listen to God.
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    And so I encourage you to do that.
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    - That's right. And hey, one last thing
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    before we get started.
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    As God is moving and stirring,
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    hopefully something in you, you might
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    find it helpful to process with other people.
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    And we have optional groups for you extroverts
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    that you can start this week.
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    Go to crossroads.net/10X.
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    Here we go for week three of the 10X Push.
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    It's not necessary for you to join
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    one of these groups, but I've just found that
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    being around other people, getting to hear your input,
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    or even us just sitting here talking.
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    Like, getting to go on a Journey
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    is really, really helpful.
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    And so that's why we don't go alone.
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    We go together.
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    Welcome to week three of the 10X Push. Let's go.
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    - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engines running.
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    Liftoff. We have a liftoff.
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    Apollo 11, this is Houston,
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    you are a go for staging.
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    - The reading we heard from was Apollo 8
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    I'm going to talk about today about how we do hard things,
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    how the people of God embrace and we do hard things.
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    Anybody who knows anything about the NASA program
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    knows that scientists are agreed,
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    and experts agree that the hardest thing
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    we ever did in space was Apollo 8.
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    Apollo 8 was the first mission of any human being
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    that went around the moon,
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    and they took off to beat the Russians
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    at Christmas time.
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    They were gone over Christmas.
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    And this was a huge, huge thing
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    because no one had ever done before.
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    If you ever saw Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks,
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    something went wrong.
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    But they had a basically a life raft
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    and they could jigger their systems.
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    Apollo 8 had no life raft,
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    and the authorities thought,
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    "This thing is probably not going to make it.
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    And we've ruined Christmas for every American forever,
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    because they're going to look up at the moon
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    and they'll see three dead astronauts
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    rotating around the moon forever.
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    Because once they die up there,
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    if something goes wrong, we can never get them back."
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    And they get up there.
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    One of the issues with the mission was,
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    Frank Borman was the crew commander,
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    him and Bill Anders and Frank Lovell,
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    and he was constantly upset with NASA because
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    they want him to film things and he was like,
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    "No, no, no, the mission is go up
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    around the moon orbit and be back."
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    And they finally just pulled rank on him
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    and said, "No. The mission includes P.R. for America.
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    We need America to like this, so we have to do this.
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    We have to film this."
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    He didn't want to film anything.
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    They got up to the moon,
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    and when they got up to the moon,
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    the government was so freaked out
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    that they weren't going to film anything.
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    They never censored anything that they said.
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    So it was just up to them.
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    So they pulled out the Bible, and one by one,
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    they took trips, they took it,
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    and they went and did Genesis one.
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    And it was perfect and it was beautiful.
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    Of course, Madalyn Murray O'Hair,
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    the leading atheist at the time,
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    then brought suit against the government
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    for separation of church and state.
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    But that's another story.
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    There's just a gravity that we see God
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    and see God, whether we see Him on the moon.
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    And by the way, technology enabled us to get to the moon.
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    We're going to be talking today about
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    one of the things that we do as a church.
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    We do hard things, and we also embrace technology.
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    Just as technology got us to the moon,
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    also, we believe technology helps us in ministry.
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    Go ahead and have a seat and let's look at this.
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    In the book of Isaiah, God's call
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    to think bigger and push for more is clear.
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    Enlarge the place of your tent
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    is an exhortation to expand the territory
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    God has already given us, the place where
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    the favor of God has collided again and again
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    with the gifts He's put in all of us
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    producing supernatural results.
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    Over the last 28 years, we have taken
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    a lot of ground for the Kingdom of God.
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    But there are four territories that God
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    has clearly given us where we have seen
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    His favor to go farther than
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    we could ever have dreamed possible,
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    and where He is now calling us to not hold back,
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    to say yes to taking a 10X moonshot,
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    to seeing His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
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    The days of creating a great experience
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    and expecting people to just show up are long gone.
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    We have to bring the life-changing message of Jesus
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    to where people spend the majority of their time,
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    and that is online.
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    Through Innovative Digital, we'll be expanding
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    the Crossroads Anywhere App to include
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    bilingual capabilities, and we're developing
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    new apps for students, kids and families
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    that will have student connection tools
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    and interactive games that teach
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    biblical principles and parenting tips.
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    Our broadcast stage is ready for an upgrade
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    to tell the greatest story with
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    the greatest storytelling tools.
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    Using the same best in class technology
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    as the Sphere in Las Vegas we'll create
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    fully immersive experiences
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    both in room and on screen.
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    These new tools will help us capture imaginations,
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    open ears, and fill hearts no matter where you live.
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    - When the pandemic happened, my church shut down.
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    I needed something.
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    - About 7 or 8 years ago, I left
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    and went to Florida and couldn't find a church home
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    for all those years.
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    - We moved to Boston in 2021.
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    - And then we started to visit other churches at that time.
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    - But it wasn't what we were accustomed to
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    and what we enjoyed with Crossroads.
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    - I had been looking for churches before.
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    I was seeking in that sense,
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    but I was not finding what what I needed.
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    - Saw this cohort online, and it was
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    21 Days to be a Better Dude;
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    who doesn't want that, right?
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    I tried it and something just clicked.
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    And for an hour and a half every Wednesday
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    I had community, I had a group of guys
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    that I was doing life with.
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    I ended up doing Man Camp with a couple of those guys.
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    It just feels like where I'm supposed to be every time.
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    - When the pandemic hit,
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    we started doing Online Crossroads.
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    We were watching online and realized
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    we were missing something.
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    We were approached about doing tables
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    and inviting people into our homes.
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    I was always afraid of rejection.
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    What I didn't realize was how many people
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    were craving an invitation.
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    When that invitation came, you could see
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    the lights in their eyes, like, "Yes, yes, I would like to."
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    - Several years ago, we had a hurricane.
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    Every night you're going to bed
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    you hear countless generators running
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    all over the neighborhood.
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    - And nobody's saying anything to anybody.
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    Nobody's interacting.
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    Nobody's even going out and saying,
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    "Hey, do you need anything? Can I help you?"
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    But I wanted to change that.
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    And then when this whole table thing came about,
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    I thought, what a great idea.
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    That's how we do Jesus to people, you know?
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    And that's how we become Jesus to people.
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    - Although I'm from Ohio, my first interaction
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    with Crossroads was actually in Brazil.
  • 00:28:06
    I realized it was something very, very different
  • 00:28:08
    and it fit what I had been looking for for a while.
  • 00:28:11
    - Every Sunday we have regular visitors
  • 00:28:15
    and we do brunch.
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    And, you know, our kids see these people
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    at the dinner table and we watch service together
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    and we talk about it.
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    - That consistent, you know, rhythm
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    of coming together and then having
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    some sort of in-depth conversation after,
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    you know, after the services watching them.
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    That's an important part of community
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    that maybe was accelerated in moving to a new place.
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    - We actually joined a marriage cohort last year.
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    We're looking forward to opening up a table
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    at our future home.
  • 00:28:44
    That's where Crossroads Anywhere can
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    actually enable us to to build more, to do more.
  • 00:28:50
    - I invest in a church that's so far away.
  • 00:28:52
    It's not. It's like, like, it's anytime
  • 00:28:53
    I turn on my computer,
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    it's any time I pick up the phone.
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    It's just my home.
  • 00:28:57
    - So the Anywhere community, it's sort of become
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    a place where those people that are far away
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    are not far away anymore.
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    Somebody's always there.
  • 00:29:11
    The people interacting with each other,
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    the people caring for each other,
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    I think that's the big thing.
  • 00:29:16
    And you don't have to be in the same zip code
  • 00:29:19
    to do that, not anymore, not in this world.
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    You're a click away.
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    - It's clearly from God. It's an answer to prayer.
  • 00:29:28
    - Isn't that encouraging what technology can do?
  • 00:29:32
    We are in the Push for 10X where we have a dream
  • 00:29:35
    of having Crossroads being 10X the influence
  • 00:29:38
    in the Kingdom of God and the size as we are right now.
  • 00:29:41
    And we're pushing not just for that to happen
  • 00:29:43
    over the next ten years.
  • 00:29:44
    We're pushing all of us.
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    We're pushing all of us to say, "Hey,
  • 00:29:48
    do you want to spiritually grow?
  • 00:29:50
    Do you want to go deeper with God?
  • 00:29:51
    Do you want to have a peace that passes understanding?"
  • 00:29:54
    We're getting us rooted and today
  • 00:29:56
    I'm going to continue to push you today.
  • 00:29:58
    Is that okay?
  • 00:29:59
    Doesn't matter. I'm going to do it.
  • 00:30:01
    And I'm also -- I'm also wooing you
  • 00:30:04
    to be a part of something that's really fun.
  • 00:30:06
    I've been doing mission briefings,
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    as have all of our community pastors
  • 00:30:10
    and some of our teaching pastors.
  • 00:30:11
    And maybe you haven't gotten an invitation
  • 00:30:13
    to one for whatever reason.
  • 00:30:15
    I want to let you know the mission,
  • 00:30:16
    we want to let you know the mission
  • 00:30:18
    of what these things are.
  • 00:30:19
    There's four areas that we call territories.
  • 00:30:22
    These are places, things that we own, fields,
  • 00:30:24
    things that we feel God's given us, like your family.
  • 00:30:27
    That family is a territory.
  • 00:30:28
    You've got to take care of it.
  • 00:30:29
    God has stewarded that to you,
  • 00:30:32
    and you have to take care of it.
  • 00:30:33
    And there's four unique areas
  • 00:30:35
    that God has called us to make a big impact in.
  • 00:30:39
    One of them is technological and digital,
  • 00:30:42
    and we're going to dig into that
  • 00:30:44
    if you want to come to that mission briefing,
  • 00:30:45
    if you haven't been to one yet, next weekend,
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    next weekend, after every service at every site,
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    that's November 3rd on Sunday,
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    after every service at every site,
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    there'll be a mission briefing.
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    Just show up, show up.
  • 00:30:59
    Make sure you understand the really unique things
  • 00:31:01
    that God is inviting us to.
  • 00:31:03
    And the next day, November 4th at 7:30,
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    Kyle Ranson, our lead pastor, will be having one
  • 00:31:10
    on digital, digital sharing all the same information.
  • 00:31:14
    You can go to crossroads.net to see that.
  • 00:31:16
    Okay, today I'm going to start pushing you a little bit harder.
  • 00:31:19
    We haven't really talked money at all,
  • 00:31:21
    as we said the first couple of weeks
  • 00:31:23
    of this Journey, I'm going to start dabbling
  • 00:31:25
    into that today and talking about
  • 00:31:27
    how we do hard things.
  • 00:31:29
    So let's pray before we go any further.
  • 00:31:32
    God, I want You to have our time today,
  • 00:31:35
    and I want You to have our hearts,
  • 00:31:36
    and I want You to have my heart.
  • 00:31:38
    I want You to have my mind.
  • 00:31:39
    God, help me to be in tune with what's happening
  • 00:31:42
    in our rooms today and help my,
  • 00:31:45
    oh, my mouth to be just speaking what
  • 00:31:48
    You want spoken to your people, to your children.
  • 00:31:52
    Thanks for the honor to talk about transcendent things.
  • 00:31:54
    And it's really a joy, Father. So, here we go.
  • 00:31:59
    I pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen.
  • 00:32:03
    In the book of Genesis 12:1-2, we see
  • 00:32:07
    somebody who is really pushed really hard.
  • 00:32:10
    Sometimes when you get pushed,
  • 00:32:11
    it doesn't mean it's going to be painful.
  • 00:32:13
    It can be awesome, but it comes out of nowhere
  • 00:32:15
    and it's something you wouldn't normally think of.
  • 00:32:17
    It's the biblical hero Abraham,
  • 00:32:21
    who at this point his name is Abram.
  • 00:32:23
    And I'll just read you Genesis 12:2.
  • 00:32:26
    This is a wanderer.
  • 00:32:29
    He doesn't have a home, really.
  • 00:32:31
    He doesn't have a home territory, a home turf.
  • 00:32:33
    He has a father who's a worshiper of idols.
  • 00:32:36
    There's no such thing as a Ten Commandments yet.
  • 00:32:39
    There's no such thing as people just
  • 00:32:41
    understanding a loving, transcendent, amazing God.
  • 00:32:45
    All that was going to come after him.
  • 00:32:47
    And here's where this loving, transcendent God
  • 00:32:49
    comes to him and gives him a vision for his life.
  • 00:32:53
    It says this:
  • 00:33:11
    I will make you a great nation and bless you.
  • 00:33:15
    This is a remarkable thing for Abraham to learn
  • 00:33:21
    because he's older and he doesn't have any kids.
  • 00:33:26
    He doesn't have any kids.
  • 00:33:27
    And now he's told, if you look up, up in the sky
  • 00:33:32
    and you notice all the stars, you're going to have
  • 00:33:35
    descendants that outnumber the stars.
  • 00:33:40
    Mind blowing to him because they're old.
  • 00:33:43
    Sarah is past the age where you have --
  • 00:33:46
    Are able to have women -- or excuse me,
  • 00:33:48
    able to have future women and able to have future men.
  • 00:33:51
    She's past that age.
  • 00:33:53
    By the way, have I told you about my Amish joke?
  • 00:33:56
    Have I told you about that?
  • 00:33:58
    Okay, save that for another day. Save for another day.
  • 00:34:01
    Or if you ever get to camp, it's all --
  • 00:34:02
    It always brings the house down.
  • 00:34:04
    Anyway, where was I? Sarah. Sarah.
  • 00:34:06
    Yeah. Sarah. Sarah and Abraham.
  • 00:34:08
    This is a crazy vision that God has given them.
  • 00:34:12
    He has a hard time believing it.
  • 00:34:16
    Well, what do you know? What do you know?
  • 00:34:18
    Some time later, some time later,
  • 00:34:21
    God comes to him and they have a child.
  • 00:34:25
    His name is Isaac.
  • 00:34:26
    And this whole thing is difficult.
  • 00:34:29
    This whole journey is difficult.
  • 00:34:32
    We're going to have really high parts in our journey.
  • 00:34:34
    We've had high parts.
  • 00:34:35
    We're gonna continue to have high parts.
  • 00:34:37
    And we're going to have some really difficult parts.
  • 00:34:40
    Because part of what happens in the family of God,
  • 00:34:42
    if you're ever going to be in the family of God,
  • 00:34:44
    one of the things that our family does
  • 00:34:46
    is we do hard things.
  • 00:34:48
    That's what God's people do.
  • 00:34:50
    We do hard things.
  • 00:34:54
    Why I'm so inspired by the space program
  • 00:34:57
    isn't just the technology that they leveraged
  • 00:35:01
    to get to do something no one had ever done before,
  • 00:35:03
    it was get to the moon.
  • 00:35:04
    But it's also the vision
  • 00:35:05
    that John F. Kennedy gave America.
  • 00:35:09
    Famous speech happens when he's down
  • 00:35:12
    at Rice University, a pretty small university
  • 00:35:15
    relative to the University of Texas.
  • 00:35:17
    And he cast his vision for getting the moon.
  • 00:35:19
    And he said, "Why would we set our sights on the moon?"
  • 00:35:24
    Why does Rice play Texas?
  • 00:35:28
    Which of course, huge state, Texas University.
  • 00:35:32
    Why does Rice play Texas?
  • 00:35:34
    "Because it's hard," that's what he says,
  • 00:35:37
    "Because it's hard."
  • 00:35:39
    I mean, many people who think that if it's hard,
  • 00:35:43
    then God must be not be involved.
  • 00:35:45
    I mean, many people who think that if it's hard,
  • 00:35:48
    then something has gone wrong somewhere.
  • 00:35:50
    No, sometimes things are just hard.
  • 00:35:54
    And people in the family of God understand
  • 00:35:56
    this is part of our family history.
  • 00:35:57
    People like Abraham have done hard,
  • 00:36:00
    incredibly hard things.
  • 00:36:02
    And this is who we are, is what we do.
  • 00:36:04
    And our country doesn't understand this anymore.
  • 00:36:06
    Our country used to do hard things.
  • 00:36:08
    We used to do huge, massive things
  • 00:36:11
    like get to the moon, take massive risks.
  • 00:36:14
    We used to build dams.
  • 00:36:16
    We used to have public works projects.
  • 00:36:18
    We used to do super highways
  • 00:36:20
    and all sorts of things that were not seen before
  • 00:36:24
    and doing them on an utter mass scale.
  • 00:36:27
    Take moonshots, buy Alaska,
  • 00:36:30
    do the Louisiana Purchase, really difficult things.
  • 00:36:32
    And what's the last difficult thing
  • 00:36:34
    that we've ever done as a country?
  • 00:36:35
    It's hard to think.
  • 00:36:36
    We don't want to do any difficult things.
  • 00:36:38
    We just want to give people money.
  • 00:36:40
    We've talked about this before, like,
  • 00:36:41
    how do you get elected to office?
  • 00:36:43
    Promise people money, whether you're poor or rich.
  • 00:36:45
    If you're poor, here's some money for it.
  • 00:36:47
    If you're rich, we're going to lower your taxes
  • 00:36:49
    so you don't have to give any money.
  • 00:36:50
    Nobody should do anything hard, that's basically
  • 00:36:52
    the message of modern day America today.
  • 00:36:54
    No one should do anything hard.
  • 00:36:55
    Everybody should get whatever they want,
  • 00:36:57
    as our national debt utterly skyrockets
  • 00:36:59
    and is ridiculously high.
  • 00:37:02
    We don't want to do hard things.
  • 00:37:04
    We don't want to make hard decisions.
  • 00:37:06
    But this is not what the family of God is about.
  • 00:37:10
    In the family of God we embrace hard things.
  • 00:37:14
    Jesus says, "In this life you will have trouble."
  • 00:37:17
    That's what he says.
  • 00:37:19
    That's a promise from Jesus.
  • 00:37:21
    In this life you will have trouble.
  • 00:37:24
    What's really crazy is when it gets hard,
  • 00:37:28
    not because something was done to you,
  • 00:37:30
    but because you step into something
  • 00:37:33
    and you voluntarily, by faith, take on something
  • 00:37:36
    that's hard and difficult.
  • 00:37:39
    I am a bit further along in this journey
  • 00:37:42
    than you all, because I've wrestled with this
  • 00:37:45
    with God over this six week Push for a year,
  • 00:37:48
    over a year, and wrestled with it for a long time,
  • 00:37:51
    and I'm excited about it.
  • 00:37:52
    It took me a while to get excited about it,
  • 00:37:54
    because I knew how hard and difficult it would be.
  • 00:37:56
    And I knew there's coming at the end of our time
  • 00:37:59
    an ability to give a financial contribution
  • 00:38:04
    above and beyond your regular giving,
  • 00:38:06
    above and beyond your tithe,
  • 00:38:07
    or getting close to the tithe for three years.
  • 00:38:09
    I know that's coming. We know that's coming.
  • 00:38:11
    If you didn't know, I just told you.
  • 00:38:12
    I knew it was coming for a long time
  • 00:38:14
    and I've been through a bunch of things like that,
  • 00:38:16
    and it just it was it was hard for me to crank it up.
  • 00:38:21
    Right? Because I'm thinking, "Man,
  • 00:38:23
    I've done this a lot. Shouldn't I be, like,
  • 00:38:25
    thinking about retirement?
  • 00:38:28
    Shouldn't I be thinking about, you know, something else?
  • 00:38:30
    This is this -- Jeez. My gosh.
  • 00:38:32
    It just keeps going on and on and on and on."
  • 00:38:34
    And I wrestled with it.
  • 00:38:35
    I've been wrestling with it and wrestling with it.
  • 00:38:37
    And God obviously eventually got ahold of me.
  • 00:38:40
    And I've had to lead our staff and others
  • 00:38:42
    through why this is really the right thing
  • 00:38:45
    for the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:38:47
    Our staff was away, leaders in our staff were away
  • 00:38:50
    trying to hear from God on what this all meant.
  • 00:38:54
    And I wasn't leading the meeting.
  • 00:38:55
    Somebody else did, and they said, "Okay,
  • 00:38:58
    let's all go off and let's just have
  • 00:39:00
    some time with God, spend some time with God,
  • 00:39:03
    and then come back here and tell us what you hear."
  • 00:39:06
    So everyone was dismissed for, I don't know,
  • 00:39:08
    we went where everyone for, I don't know,
  • 00:39:10
    about an hour and then came back.
  • 00:39:11
    And what came to me, the words just started flowing.
  • 00:39:15
    I just typed out this journal entry.
  • 00:39:18
    It was amazingly fluent and I just read it
  • 00:39:21
    to people when we got back as my contribution.
  • 00:39:23
    And I thought, I've saved that.
  • 00:39:25
    I thought I would read it to you.
  • 00:39:26
    Do you mind if I read this to you?
  • 00:39:28
    All right, here we go. Here's what it is.
  • 00:39:31
    Uh, this is exactly what it is.
  • 00:39:33
    There's also going to be a long Bible verse in there,
  • 00:39:36
    and there's a bunch of people's names
  • 00:39:37
    who you might not know.
  • 00:39:38
    I don't have time to explain all of them.
  • 00:39:40
    Just understand all these people's names,
  • 00:39:42
    they all did hard things. Okay, here's what it is.
  • 00:39:45
    Every move of God comes on the back
  • 00:39:48
    of someone doing something hard.
  • 00:39:51
    Every story in the Bible that inspires us
  • 00:39:54
    is of an individual doing something
  • 00:39:56
    that is hard under the authority of God.
  • 00:39:59
    They often aren't hearing directly from God to do it,
  • 00:40:03
    but they embrace the suck
  • 00:40:05
    and they move forward in faithfulness.
  • 00:40:08
    Why am I waiting for the clouds to part?
  • 00:40:11
    Why do I think God is going to give me
  • 00:40:13
    an obvious word and the pieces
  • 00:40:15
    are going to fall into place?
  • 00:40:17
    The fact that it is hard probably is all I need.
  • 00:40:21
    It's hard for Abraham to trust God with the dream.
  • 00:40:24
    Hard for Sarah to hit the bedroom
  • 00:40:25
    when the way of women had ceased.
  • 00:40:27
    Hard for Abraham to sacrifice his son.
  • 00:40:30
    Hard for Moses to turn his back on his family
  • 00:40:33
    and lead God's family to freedom.
  • 00:40:35
    Hard for Rahab to sell out her countrymen
  • 00:40:37
    and be a spy for an invader.
  • 00:40:39
    Hard for Israel to cross the Jordan River.
  • 00:40:41
    Hard for David to go against Goliath.
  • 00:40:43
    Hard for Hosea to marry a prostitute.
  • 00:40:46
    Hard for Mary to have a divine child out of wedlock.
  • 00:40:49
    Hard for Joseph to suffer public shame.
  • 00:40:51
    Hard for Jesus to be born without a crib.
  • 00:40:54
    Hard for Peter to get out of the boat.
  • 00:40:57
    Hard to do the Great Commission.
  • 00:40:59
    Hard for Paul to walk away from
  • 00:41:01
    his professional and spiritual heritage.
  • 00:41:03
    Hard for Stephen to be martyred.
  • 00:41:05
    Hebrews 11 is all about hard things
  • 00:41:08
    that people in the Hall of Faith did.
  • 00:41:11
    Maybe our faith story isn't as inspiring
  • 00:41:15
    because we shun things that are difficult.
  • 00:41:18
    Maybe the shot in our arm that our faith needs
  • 00:41:20
    is a swift kick into a hard place,
  • 00:41:23
    where it is dark and hard.
  • 00:41:25
    We're here because someone before us did something hard.
  • 00:41:29
    Jesus died a hard and painful death.
  • 00:41:32
    Our parents may have made hard choices
  • 00:41:33
    to raise us in the faith,
  • 00:41:35
    or a friend made the hard choice
  • 00:41:36
    to share their faith and maybe get judged.
  • 00:41:40
    Or we came to Crossroads because someone before
  • 00:41:43
    made the hard choice to go without cable,
  • 00:41:45
    savings, house addition or something,
  • 00:41:47
    so that money could give you a parking spot,
  • 00:41:50
    a seat, or a web address
  • 00:41:52
    with all the back office support necessary.
  • 00:41:55
    Hebrews 11:32-39. And what more?
  • 00:42:38
    This is all the Bible, by the way.
  • 00:43:07
    These people didn't see the awakening
  • 00:43:09
    that would come by the Spirit, but they didn't care.
  • 00:43:12
    They just wanted to be faithful,
  • 00:43:14
    even when it came with a cost.
  • 00:43:18
    Friends, that's why you're here.
  • 00:43:20
    I don't know, I don't know where you are in your faith,
  • 00:43:22
    where you are in understanding Jesus.
  • 00:43:24
    I don't know if you've come to Him, if you haven't.
  • 00:43:26
    Understand, all of us are only here
  • 00:43:29
    because people did hard things.
  • 00:43:31
    Jesus went to a cross.
  • 00:43:34
    Early followers of Christ
  • 00:43:36
    were likewise crucified upside down.
  • 00:43:38
    There were missionaries that have gone all over
  • 00:43:40
    the world and people have laid their life down.
  • 00:43:43
    We're here because our family,
  • 00:43:46
    the family of God, does hard things.
  • 00:43:49
    And we live in a culture where if it's hard,
  • 00:43:51
    God must not love me.
  • 00:43:53
    And I'm out of here and I'm upset
  • 00:43:55
    and my faith is struggling and I can't --
  • 00:43:57
    That's fine. Let's all have times
  • 00:43:59
    where our faith is struggling.
  • 00:44:00
    Let's do that, but let's also say
  • 00:44:03
    stuff gets hard and I'm okay if God has me.
  • 00:44:07
    Let's also say stuff gets hard
  • 00:44:09
    and God actually invites me to do hard things.
  • 00:44:13
    This is a form of Christianity
  • 00:44:15
    that is not preached and is not embraced,
  • 00:44:17
    which is why we're so weak and we have
  • 00:44:19
    so few yeses to our prayers
  • 00:44:20
    and so little joy that passes understanding.
  • 00:44:24
    Because there's a different level many people
  • 00:44:27
    need to hit that don't even know that level is there.
  • 00:44:30
    Now let's go back to Genesis 22,
  • 00:44:33
    and let's see how hard it gets for Abraham
  • 00:44:36
    and how rewarding as well.
  • 00:44:38
    So now this is ten chapters after I read before
  • 00:44:42
    and let's just see what happens.
  • 00:44:44
    They have a child, miraculously,
  • 00:44:45
    he and Sarah have a child, have a son, eldest son.
  • 00:44:49
    In that culture and society that's really important
  • 00:44:51
    because it's the eldest son that
  • 00:44:54
    sets the course for descendants
  • 00:44:55
    and takes care of the family when the father dies
  • 00:44:58
    and he's a sign that something is happening good.
  • 00:45:00
    Here's what it says:
  • 00:45:17
    Wait, God, you said my descendants
  • 00:45:20
    would outnumber the stars,
  • 00:45:22
    and you've given me a descendant miraculously.
  • 00:45:25
    And now you want me to go and sacrifice him?
  • 00:45:30
    See, modern religions have all gotten wise that,
  • 00:45:34
    you know, child sacrifice is a bad idea.
  • 00:45:36
    It's a bad idea.
  • 00:45:37
    But ancient religions, that wasn't the case.
  • 00:45:39
    This was very, very, very, very, very, very common.
  • 00:45:43
    So when Abraham hears this, he doesn't think,
  • 00:45:46
    "I've never heard of such a thing."
  • 00:45:48
    He thinks to himself probably,
  • 00:45:50
    "I didn't know that You were that kind of God.
  • 00:45:52
    And this really doesn't make sense,
  • 00:45:54
    given the promise that You've made me,
  • 00:45:56
    that this child is supposed to be
  • 00:45:59
    the fulfillment of this."
  • 00:46:00
    So it's a hard thing that he's invited to do
  • 00:46:04
    and he's asked to do. Verse 3 it keeps going.
  • 00:46:10
    "Come on," he said to him, "Come along now, donkey,"
  • 00:46:26
    Gets up, takes two young men. Why?
  • 00:46:28
    Why does he take two young men?
  • 00:46:32
    Interesting theory why he has to take
  • 00:46:34
    two young men with him.
  • 00:46:35
    He needs to take two young men with him
  • 00:46:37
    because he needs to manhandle Isaac.
  • 00:46:40
    And it's not necessarily because he's
  • 00:46:42
    a little squirmy, a little squirmy lad.
  • 00:46:45
    It's because increasing numbers of scholars,
  • 00:46:47
    including rabbinical schools of thought,
  • 00:46:50
    are convinced that Isaac
  • 00:46:53
    is not some little 4 or 5 year old.
  • 00:46:56
    He's actually somewhere between 30 and 37.
  • 00:47:03
    I didn't understand when I went over
  • 00:47:06
    until I went to Israel how significant
  • 00:47:08
    this story is in terms of redemptive history.
  • 00:47:11
    First time I went to Israel, there's churches
  • 00:47:13
    that are on top of places where
  • 00:47:16
    something significant in the Bible took place.
  • 00:47:18
    People built a church to memorialize it,
  • 00:47:20
    and I just never realized how important
  • 00:47:24
    this scene was, because it comes up again
  • 00:47:26
    and again and again and again and again.
  • 00:47:28
    This scene of Abraham taking Isaac
  • 00:47:30
    up on the mountain to sacrifice him.
  • 00:47:34
    And then I started to realize,
  • 00:47:35
    oh, it's because this is a type or a prefigure,
  • 00:47:41
    or in essence, a physical prophecy
  • 00:47:44
    of what's going to happen with God
  • 00:47:46
    because God the Father takes His Son Jesus
  • 00:47:51
    up on a mountain and He has Him sacrificed.
  • 00:47:55
    That's the New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • 00:47:57
    And Jesus is about 30 to 37 years old,
  • 00:48:02
    probably 33 years old.
  • 00:48:04
    There's a lot of parallels here that are happening.
  • 00:48:07
    Difficult things.
  • 00:48:09
    Two young studs along with Abraham,
  • 00:48:12
    probably thinking, "I'm going to have to
  • 00:48:14
    manhandle my son if he doesn't want to do this."
  • 00:48:18
    Verse four.
  • 00:48:22
    Third day on this journey, third day,
  • 00:48:25
    and sees it from afar.
  • 00:48:27
    Jesus, by the way, is crucified,
  • 00:48:30
    and on the third day He is resurrected from the dead.
  • 00:48:33
    Three day journey, very significant with Isaac.
  • 00:48:35
    Three day journey, very significant for for Jesus.
  • 00:48:41
    Parallels are pretty interesting and unmistakable.
  • 00:48:44
    Verse five. Verse five says this:
  • 00:48:58
    And Abraham, by the way, boy, it says boy in this translation.
  • 00:49:01
    But I looked at it, it doesn't mean little child there,
  • 00:49:04
    just in case you're curious.
  • 00:49:10
    Just like Jesus had wood laid on Him,
  • 00:49:14
    it was a cross that was laid on Him
  • 00:49:16
    when He went to the top of His mountain.
  • 00:49:24
    And Isaac said to his father Abraham,
  • 00:49:28
    he said, "My father."
  • 00:49:29
    "Here I am, my son."
  • 00:49:31
    He said, "Behold the fire and the wood,
  • 00:49:33
    but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
  • 00:49:36
    Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself
  • 00:49:39
    the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
  • 00:49:41
    So they went both of them together.
  • 00:49:43
    So it looks like it may not have sunk in yet
  • 00:49:46
    with I with Isaac exactly what's going to happen.
  • 00:50:01
    Isaac apparently is going along with this now.
  • 00:50:03
    He's not showing any signs of running away.
  • 00:50:30
    This is the dream.
  • 00:50:31
    God gives him a dream, and then God has him
  • 00:50:34
    put the dream on the line by having his son killed.
  • 00:50:37
    And why would God do this?
  • 00:50:39
    Because God is testing him.
  • 00:50:42
    He wants to know, am I really your God?
  • 00:50:46
    Do you really love me?
  • 00:50:47
    Am I first? Am I first?
  • 00:50:50
    Am I in number one place?
  • 00:50:52
    Do you want the blessings or do you want me?
  • 00:50:56
    Do you want a relationship with me
  • 00:50:58
    or do you want an easy life?
  • 00:51:02
    There are times when God is going to do this to you.
  • 00:51:05
    He's going to intentionally have you
  • 00:51:06
    go through something hard.
  • 00:51:08
    One, because that's how you're formed,
  • 00:51:10
    because you're not spiritually formed
  • 00:51:12
    and you go to the beach on vacation.
  • 00:51:14
    It's wonderful. It's great.
  • 00:51:16
    But we all know this, we're spiritually formed
  • 00:51:19
    through those times where we got ripped through
  • 00:51:21
    a knothole and we just barely make it to the other side.
  • 00:51:24
    And then we're strengthened
  • 00:51:26
    and God can meet us on vacation.
  • 00:51:27
    But we all know that we never remember
  • 00:51:29
    the vacation where everything went according to plan.
  • 00:51:32
    We remember the one where the room got canceled,
  • 00:51:34
    where the weather was horrible.
  • 00:51:37
    That's what it is in spiritual formation.
  • 00:51:39
    It's the difficult things that God uses to form us,
  • 00:51:42
    to push us into new places.
  • 00:51:45
    And this is how Abraham is getting pushed in this place.
  • 00:51:49
    So what if God still does this today?
  • 00:51:53
    What if God still to this day is calling people
  • 00:51:58
    to make sacrifices that test us
  • 00:52:02
    whether or not we want God more than him?
  • 00:52:07
    So I think about this.
  • 00:52:09
    I think, you know, God has blessed me with a lot.
  • 00:52:11
    Let me tell you some of the things
  • 00:52:12
    that God has blessed me with.
  • 00:52:13
    There's a bunch of things that He's blessed me with.
  • 00:52:15
    And this table is sort of the -- it's wood.
  • 00:52:19
    It's not stone, but it's sort of the altar. Right?
  • 00:52:21
    It's on the table.
  • 00:52:23
    Now, when God put Isaac on the table,
  • 00:52:27
    put him on the table, he was willing for it,
  • 00:52:30
    for him to be taken away.
  • 00:52:31
    Fortunately, he was not taken away.
  • 00:52:34
    He wasn't taken away.
  • 00:52:35
    But the exercise of putting our lives
  • 00:52:38
    on the table is an exercise of saying,
  • 00:52:40
    do I, do I love God or I do I love this?
  • 00:52:44
    Do I want God or do I want this?
  • 00:52:46
    Is my biggest fears losing these things
  • 00:52:51
    or is my biggest fear losing a relationship
  • 00:52:53
    with God and connection with God?
  • 00:52:55
    And it's healthy.
  • 00:52:56
    And I'm gonna encourage you to do this.
  • 00:52:58
    In fact, in your guide, which -- isn't it great?
  • 00:53:00
    Isn't this helpful for our growth?
  • 00:53:02
    Hasn't it been fantastic? Yeah.
  • 00:53:03
    In your guide is you're going to see this week
  • 00:53:05
    in the back there's going to be a whole list
  • 00:53:08
    of things just to stimulate in this process,
  • 00:53:11
    you in this process that you can do on your own.
  • 00:53:13
    I'll just give you some of my processing,
  • 00:53:15
    things that -- things that
  • 00:53:18
    I'm putting on the table that are good things.
  • 00:53:20
    I'm thankful for these things.
  • 00:53:22
    And I'm just recognizing, God, these are yours.
  • 00:53:24
    First, there's my family. My family right here.
  • 00:53:29
    My my three kids, three son-in law, uh, whatever.
  • 00:53:35
    Three kids and their spouses
  • 00:53:38
    and my five grandkids and one grandkid
  • 00:53:42
    on the way in my and my daughter's belly.
  • 00:53:44
    So six grandkids are coming.
  • 00:53:46
    Yeah. It's pretty -- it's pretty fun.
  • 00:53:47
    And I put this up here because I remind myself
  • 00:53:50
    they're on the table, because why?
  • 00:53:52
    Because they're not my kids.
  • 00:53:54
    They're God's kids.
  • 00:53:56
    I am meant to steward this as best I can,
  • 00:54:00
    but they're God's kids.
  • 00:54:04
    The worst part of my job,
  • 00:54:06
    it's happened more times than I can --
  • 00:54:08
    That I even want to remember.
  • 00:54:09
    The worst part of my job is when I'm involved
  • 00:54:12
    with a funeral with a child who has had
  • 00:54:15
    a premature death in our church.
  • 00:54:17
    It's horrible. Horrible, always is, horrible.
  • 00:54:26
    And if I talk to the parents or parents
  • 00:54:29
    based on where they are or how I feel they are,
  • 00:54:33
    if they're able to receive certain words,
  • 00:54:36
    I'll say something like this.
  • 00:54:40
    "This is really hard. I know, I don't understand.
  • 00:54:44
    I haven't been through it, thankfully,
  • 00:54:46
    but I know who does understand.
  • 00:54:49
    God understands. Your heavenly Father understands
  • 00:54:51
    because He lost a child, too.
  • 00:54:53
    And maybe it's in this moment where we recognize
  • 00:54:56
    these kids were never our kids,
  • 00:54:58
    and they're home with their Heavenly Father
  • 00:55:00
    instead of here.
  • 00:55:01
    And as horrible as it is, as horrible as it is,
  • 00:55:04
    you might want to hang on to that."
  • 00:55:06
    I don't know if you ever get over fully losing a child,
  • 00:55:08
    but the ones that I know that
  • 00:55:10
    seem to have gotten over it,
  • 00:55:11
    or at least have recaptured joy
  • 00:55:13
    and laughter in their life, are people
  • 00:55:15
    who have sensed that like,
  • 00:55:16
    "These weren't my kids, and they're gone.
  • 00:55:19
    God probably didn't take them.
  • 00:55:22
    He allowed them to be taken, but they weren't mine."
  • 00:55:24
    I put it on the table.
  • 00:55:26
    My family. My family is on the table.
  • 00:55:29
    My house, my house. It's a wonderful house.
  • 00:55:33
    It's the only house I own.
  • 00:55:35
    And, well, the bank partially owns it.
  • 00:55:39
    And but I recognize this is not my house.
  • 00:55:42
    It's God's house. It's God's.
  • 00:55:44
    He lets me live there, whatever it is.
  • 00:55:46
    And I put that on the table and say,
  • 00:55:48
    "All of that, God, that's yours.
  • 00:55:49
    And you can take this back at any time You want."
  • 00:55:52
    I mean, there's people in the book of Acts
  • 00:55:53
    who sold their homes, sold their homes
  • 00:55:55
    for the cause of God.
  • 00:55:57
    So I can't think just because I have this home
  • 00:55:59
    that I shouldn't sell it someday
  • 00:56:01
    and give all the money to X, Y, Z.
  • 00:56:03
    God, it's on the table.
  • 00:56:04
    I'm not protecting it.
  • 00:56:06
    I've got, uh, oh, we have cars in our family,
  • 00:56:10
    Lib and I, my little white pickup truck.
  • 00:56:12
    And Lib's got her red -- or black Cherokee.
  • 00:56:16
    They're your cars, God. They're not my cars.
  • 00:56:19
    And even, like, staff members, like Kyle Ranson.
  • 00:56:22
    This is Kyle Ranson right here.
  • 00:56:23
    This is. This is him. This is him.
  • 00:56:27
    He needs a stepladder to get into my car.
  • 00:56:30
    He does, but that's little cute Kyle.
  • 00:56:33
    There he is. Nice little cute Kyle.
  • 00:56:35
    No, I don't own Kyle.
  • 00:56:36
    But still not over him calling me old a few weeks ago.
  • 00:56:40
    Kyle never poke the bear.
  • 00:56:41
    Have you not learned this by now?
  • 00:56:43
    I speak more often than you.
  • 00:56:44
    And I speak better than you.
  • 00:56:46
    So just let it go.
  • 00:56:49
    I don't know about that second part, actually.
  • 00:56:51
    I don't know about that at all.
  • 00:56:53
    Uh. Here's one, here's one, here's one.
  • 00:56:56
    Uh, how about this one?
  • 00:56:58
    This is, this represents all the --
  • 00:57:03
    All the streaming services I have.
  • 00:57:04
    You know, back in the day, we used to have cable, right?
  • 00:57:08
    And very few of us have cable.
  • 00:57:10
    We've just got we're streaming things
  • 00:57:12
    and it's Wi-Fi and it's connectivity.
  • 00:57:14
    When we used to have some early campaigns,
  • 00:57:18
    I would, one of the things we did in our first campaign.
  • 00:57:20
    I'll just show you some numbers here.
  • 00:57:22
    Not because - well, just sharing.
  • 00:57:25
    Sometimes we share numbers or things
  • 00:57:27
    that someone's done it inspires us
  • 00:57:29
    or helps us go, "Oh, that's interesting. Look."
  • 00:57:31
    First time Crossroads went through a campaign,
  • 00:57:33
    we had a family of five, and we had
  • 00:57:35
    a family of five and a household income of $75,000.
  • 00:57:40
    And we gave a commitment.
  • 00:57:44
    We were tithing a bit beyond the tithe,
  • 00:57:45
    if I remember correctly.
  • 00:57:47
    And then our commitment above and beyond
  • 00:57:48
    what we regularly give was about,
  • 00:57:50
    I think it was $33,000 over three years.
  • 00:57:53
    That's a lot of money back then,
  • 00:57:55
    a lot of money today, a lot of money,
  • 00:57:56
    especially a lot of money in all
  • 00:57:58
    those circumstances where we were and everything.
  • 00:58:00
    And one of the ways we did that is
  • 00:58:01
    we put up on the table cable and we said,
  • 00:58:04
    "God, we could probably give,
  • 00:58:05
    if we didn't have cable for three years."
  • 00:58:08
    I remember and my kids remember,
  • 00:58:10
    they still talk about it like it was these hard,
  • 00:58:13
    these hard things that they went through
  • 00:58:15
    that were like badges of honor
  • 00:58:17
    that they hated at the time,
  • 00:58:19
    but they grew to love it and informed them.
  • 00:58:22
    I remember my kids at the top of our stairs.
  • 00:58:24
    We lived right beside our apartment complex.
  • 00:58:26
    They were the top of the stairs on a landing,
  • 00:58:27
    looking through our window into
  • 00:58:30
    the apartment's window to watch their TV
  • 00:58:33
    without any sound, because we had no TV to watch,
  • 00:58:37
    or at least we couldn't pick up
  • 00:58:39
    any of the shows they wanted to.
  • 00:58:40
    We had that. We had that on the table.
  • 00:58:43
    This is also things like vacations or trips.
  • 00:58:50
    I have a trip that I was planning on doing
  • 00:58:53
    sometime in January.
  • 00:58:55
    A motorcycle trip to Baja, Mexico.
  • 00:58:58
    By the time you fly into California,
  • 00:59:01
    ship your bike, and then ride the Baja Peninsula
  • 00:59:03
    down and back, it's very, very pricey.
  • 00:59:07
    And this is one of the things,
  • 00:59:08
    Lib and I don't know what we're going to do
  • 00:59:10
    with our commitment in a few weeks.
  • 00:59:11
    We don't know.
  • 00:59:13
    Again, we've been on this journey
  • 00:59:14
    a lot longer than any of you, you know?
  • 00:59:16
    And we're still not sure.
  • 00:59:18
    So one of the things I did feel God say to me is,
  • 00:59:22
    "Hey, man, it's probably too early
  • 00:59:23
    for you to go do that motorcycle thing."
  • 00:59:26
    Like, yeah, I put that up on the table already
  • 00:59:28
    and like that money is going to go
  • 00:59:29
    towards our commitment, whatever that is.
  • 00:59:31
    He put that on the table and already
  • 00:59:32
    there's other things here that God may want,
  • 00:59:34
    but that one already God said,
  • 00:59:36
    "Yeah, I'll take that one, I'll take that one."
  • 00:59:37
    So that saved a lot of money that \
  • 00:59:39
    we can put elsewhere here.
  • 00:59:41
    One more, one more. This is something new
  • 00:59:43
    and unique for me because when I've done
  • 00:59:45
    this exercise in the past,
  • 00:59:47
    this wasn't a part of the gig.
  • 00:59:49
    I have retirement accounts.
  • 00:59:51
    I've always had those retirement accounts,
  • 00:59:54
    but I don't -- a retirement account rather,
  • 00:59:56
    but I can't really get to it.
  • 00:59:59
    But now I'm getting so old
  • 01:00:02
    and sometime in the next three years
  • 01:00:03
    I could get to it. I could get to it.
  • 01:00:06
    That's on the table, that's on the table.
  • 01:00:08
    And here's the thing that I've never had before.
  • 01:00:10
    In the last several years is the first time
  • 01:00:12
    I owned some stocks, I have a brokerage account,
  • 01:00:16
    and I get these statements and I go online
  • 01:00:19
    and I look and, of course, if you have that,
  • 01:00:21
    if you're blessed to have that, you know the drill.
  • 01:00:23
    Go online. You just want to see a higher number.
  • 01:00:26
    And every time you see a higher number,
  • 01:00:28
    that's your new baseline.
  • 01:00:29
    And the market dips, you're like,
  • 01:00:31
    "Whoa, what the heck happened?"
  • 01:00:32
    That's called the market. It's called the market.
  • 01:00:36
    And I realized that I keep thinking that
  • 01:00:40
    then my next high is my absolute minimum.
  • 01:00:42
    And I said, "God, this is not my nest egg.
  • 01:00:45
    This is Yours. And you can call
  • 01:00:47
    any part of it back at any time."
  • 01:00:50
    Part of what we're going to do is
  • 01:00:52
    absolutely stocks and stuff that we have in this,
  • 01:00:54
    a portion or whatever it is.
  • 01:00:55
    I don't know what it is.
  • 01:00:56
    I haven't heard that from God,
  • 01:00:58
    but I know that's on the table, whatever God wants.
  • 01:01:00
    Money sits there and is parked there for
  • 01:01:06
    I'm not even sure what the purpose is.
  • 01:01:08
    Or money goes to bless people
  • 01:01:10
    and bring people into the Kingdom of God.
  • 01:01:12
    That's an easy one.
  • 01:01:14
    All of this stuff, all this stuff,
  • 01:01:18
    all this stuff really comes down to this,
  • 01:01:21
    really what I could just do is I just --
  • 01:01:25
    I'm on the altar. I'm on the altar.
  • 01:01:29
    My whole body.
  • 01:01:30
    Romans 12:2 says live as a living sacrifice.
  • 01:01:34
    A living sacrifice, so I go on the altar,
  • 01:01:37
    but that doesn't mean I necessarily get killed.
  • 01:01:39
    It means I'm living on the altar.
  • 01:01:42
    I'm having a good time.
  • 01:01:43
    Let's do some push ups in here.
  • 01:01:44
    I'm having a good time up here.
  • 01:01:45
    But I'm God's, and everything I have
  • 01:01:47
    in my pockets is all God's.
  • 01:01:49
    I'm living and enjoying life, but I am God's.
  • 01:01:52
    There's nothing that I think that I don't run by Him,
  • 01:01:55
    nothing I own that isn't His.
  • 01:01:56
    He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
  • 01:01:58
    and He owns everything in my brokerage accounts
  • 01:02:01
    and everything in my house, every, everything.
  • 01:02:04
    And I do it joyfully because I am a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:10
    When you cross to this, really cool things happen.
  • 01:02:12
    We've had people who have done this and, like,
  • 01:02:15
    gone an entire three years
  • 01:02:17
    and not not bleach their hair or colored their hair
  • 01:02:20
    and put that money into the things of God.
  • 01:02:21
    I remember one woman said, "I'm not going to --
  • 01:02:23
    I'm not going to smoke cigarettes for three years."
  • 01:02:25
    And she smoked a lot and all that money went off.
  • 01:02:28
    We had a woman last year that said,
  • 01:02:31
    "Man, I could save money at the laundromat
  • 01:02:33
    if I don't dry my clothes.
  • 01:02:34
    I'm just going to hang dry them instead."
  • 01:02:38
    Yeah, you hear these stories
  • 01:02:40
    and it really belittles somebody like me,
  • 01:02:42
    like, my gosh, that is generosity, geesh,
  • 01:02:46
    but it's also a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:48
    And those folks are happy as clams.
  • 01:02:50
    I don't know why do we say happy as a clam?
  • 01:02:52
    How do we even know a clam is happy? I don't know.
  • 01:02:55
    Here's one woman's story of being a living sacrifice.
  • 01:02:59
    - I grew up Catholic, baptized as an infant,
  • 01:03:02
    went to church every Sunday,
  • 01:03:03
    went to Catholic school growing up,
  • 01:03:05
    but never really felt a relationship with God.
  • 01:03:08
    Definitely felt more, like, legalistic.
  • 01:03:11
    Like, you've got to follow the rules
  • 01:03:13
    and check all the boxes and do the right things.
  • 01:03:17
    And went to college,
  • 01:03:19
    completely fell away from church.
  • 01:03:21
    And then when I graduated, I found myself
  • 01:03:24
    wanting to find a church home.
  • 01:03:26
    My brother had started coming to Crossroads.
  • 01:03:29
    He invited me to come, and he had warned me
  • 01:03:31
    that it would be very different
  • 01:03:33
    from anything I'd ever known church to be.
  • 01:03:35
    But I instantly felt comfortable, I felt welcomed,
  • 01:03:41
    I've actually feel like I've grown.
  • 01:03:42
    I feel like I have a relationship with God now.
  • 01:03:45
    It's not that legalistic view.
  • 01:03:46
    I don't have that anymore, thankfully.
  • 01:03:49
    I struggled with trusting God always
  • 01:03:53
    because life wasn't going the way
  • 01:03:55
    I thought it was supposed to go.
  • 01:03:57
    It went back to my upbringing
  • 01:03:59
    of we've done everything right,
  • 01:04:00
    why isn't it going our way?
  • 01:04:02
    The one thing I always wanted in life
  • 01:04:04
    was to be married and have kids.
  • 01:04:06
    That didn't seem to be in the cards.
  • 01:04:07
    It wasn't happening. I was in my mid 30s.
  • 01:04:10
    My friends would joke with me
  • 01:04:11
    that I was the queen of first dates.
  • 01:04:12
    I would go, I would date a lot,
  • 01:04:14
    but I didn't find somebody that wanted
  • 01:04:16
    to have a relationship with me.
  • 01:04:18
    I definitely felt rejected.
  • 01:04:20
    I was rejected by men.
  • 01:04:22
    I thought, "Am I not pretty enough?
  • 01:04:23
    Am I not the right size?
  • 01:04:25
    Am I not smart enough?
  • 01:04:26
    Do I not, you know, whatever?"
  • 01:04:28
    I would pray, but I also had some --
  • 01:04:31
    Some harsh words for God.
  • 01:04:33
    Maybe He's not speaking truth to me.
  • 01:04:35
    Maybe He doesn't really love me like He said.
  • 01:04:39
    I doubted my faith.
  • 01:04:40
    It was like a feeling of desperation.
  • 01:04:42
    Like, I just want this one thing.
  • 01:04:44
    I've got everything else in life that I think I need.
  • 01:04:46
    I just want this one thing. Why can't I have it?
  • 01:04:49
    So I started thinking, "Well, I'm smart.
  • 01:04:52
    I'm a strong woman.
  • 01:04:54
    If He's not going to do it for me,
  • 01:04:55
    I'm going to do it myself."
  • 01:04:57
    I looked into my health insurance.
  • 01:04:59
    What coverage do I have to help getting pregnant?
  • 01:05:01
    I called adoption agencies to find out
  • 01:05:03
    what's the process, what's, like,
  • 01:05:05
    can you give me a ballpark what's this going to cost me?"
  • 01:05:08
    I was all in, but I didn't --
  • 01:05:10
    I still didn't feel peace about it.
  • 01:05:12
    So it was 2015, I believe.
  • 01:05:15
    And Crossroads started talking about
  • 01:05:16
    the I'm In Campaign.
  • 01:05:18
    So I started just thinking about it,
  • 01:05:20
    praying about what it should be.
  • 01:05:22
    And I was driving home from church one Sunday
  • 01:05:27
    and I just was overcome with emotion.
  • 01:05:30
    I just started crying.
  • 01:05:31
    I almost had to pull over the car
  • 01:05:33
    because I was afraid I was going to crash.
  • 01:05:34
    And this number came into my head.
  • 01:05:37
    And my first thought was, "Well, that's crazy.
  • 01:05:40
    That's a lot of money."
  • 01:05:42
    And then I just felt like I heard God,
  • 01:05:45
    not an audible voice, but I just knew that
  • 01:05:48
    He was speaking to me and He said,
  • 01:05:51
    "Just give it to Me and I'll take care of you."
  • 01:05:53
    And that number was what I thought
  • 01:05:55
    it was going to cost me to have a child.
  • 01:05:57
    Yeah, that day in the car,
  • 01:05:58
    I definitely felt like it was a surrender to God.
  • 01:06:00
    It was I'm going to surrender my finances,
  • 01:06:03
    and I'm going to surrender my life and my dreams
  • 01:06:07
    that I thought I could fulfill myself.
  • 01:06:09
    I'm going to surrender it all to Him
  • 01:06:11
    and let Him take control of my life.
  • 01:06:15
    And He did amazing things.
  • 01:06:17
    I felt like, "Okay, well,
  • 01:06:19
    I'm probably not going to be a mom.
  • 01:06:21
    That's just not what God wants for me.
  • 01:06:23
    My path is something different."
  • 01:06:25
    I don't know what that is, but I also felt peace.
  • 01:06:28
    Like, I'm okay with it now.
  • 01:06:30
    Like, whatever it is, it's in His hands
  • 01:06:33
    and it's going to be amazing.
  • 01:06:34
    And I'm going to just follow
  • 01:06:36
    whatever He prompts me to do.
  • 01:06:39
    So that's what I did.
  • 01:06:41
    It was about a year and a half later, I met Mark.
  • 01:06:44
    He asked me out, we met for a drink.
  • 01:06:47
    We started dating and he came with a daughter.
  • 01:06:51
    The one year anniversary of our first date he proposed.
  • 01:06:55
    Six months later, we got married.
  • 01:06:57
    And he is the most wonderful man,
  • 01:07:00
    who loves me like I didn't even know
  • 01:07:02
    it was possible to be loved.
  • 01:07:04
    We've just continued to grow as a family spiritually.
  • 01:07:08
    Both Mark and Lauren
  • 01:07:10
    have gotten baptized through Crossroads.
  • 01:07:14
    One of the things that just touched my heart
  • 01:07:17
    immensely was she wanted, at our wedding,
  • 01:07:19
    she wanted to give a speech.
  • 01:07:21
    And she was, I think she was 13.
  • 01:07:24
    And she got up and thanked me
  • 01:07:27
    for bringing her and her dad back to God.
  • 01:07:31
    So it's just it's been really special to me
  • 01:07:35
    to kind of help her on that journey.
  • 01:07:38
    And it just felt like it came --
  • 01:07:40
    Like my story came full circle.
  • 01:07:42
    God fulfilled his promise to me
  • 01:07:44
    after I leaned in and trusted Him.
  • 01:07:48
    - That's good stuff right there. Wow.
  • 01:07:55
    One of the most impressive things that
  • 01:07:59
    has happened in our country
  • 01:08:00
    in a long, long, long, long time
  • 01:08:03
    happened very recently.
  • 01:08:05
    Speaking of technology, with Apollo 11
  • 01:08:08
    and how we feel as a church, the technology
  • 01:08:11
    is one of the things that we need to lean into,
  • 01:08:13
    which is why we pour as much money in the app as we do.
  • 01:08:15
    And we want to have upgraded experiences,
  • 01:08:19
    immersive experiences and all of our sites
  • 01:08:21
    that leverages technology and all that stuff
  • 01:08:23
    that we feel an affinity for this.
  • 01:08:26
    But I think it's almost kind of like
  • 01:08:28
    as human beings technology represents,
  • 01:08:30
    like, advancing, getting ahead,
  • 01:08:32
    making life more rich, more full.
  • 01:08:35
    And of course, technology has a lot, a lot,
  • 01:08:37
    a lot, a lot of downsides to it.
  • 01:08:38
    We talk about that a lot,
  • 01:08:40
    but there's also amazing upsides to it.
  • 01:08:43
    And this thing that was so impressive,
  • 01:08:46
    as I said, the most impressive thing
  • 01:08:48
    that's happened in a long, long time
  • 01:08:49
    was SpaceX's recent launch of a rocket
  • 01:08:53
    up into space, at least up towards the atmosphere.
  • 01:08:56
    And the goal was, can they go up
  • 01:08:58
    and recycle the booster?
  • 01:09:00
    You know, when we went, when Apollo 11
  • 01:09:03
    went to the moon in the first second
  • 01:09:07
    they burned more fuel than Charles Lindbergh
  • 01:09:09
    did in his entire flight from New York to Paris.
  • 01:09:13
    It's an amazing amount.
  • 01:09:14
    And then you go up there and you just reject
  • 01:09:16
    all this rocket and the engines and all that stuff.
  • 01:09:19
    It's just wasted. It's gone.
  • 01:09:21
    So what happens if you can go up, bring it back,
  • 01:09:23
    refuel, go up, bring it back, refuel, go, all that stuff?
  • 01:09:27
    18 stories high, 18 stories high
  • 01:09:30
    as it goes up and it ejects.
  • 01:09:33
    And watch what happens when it's on
  • 01:09:36
    its way back down as a result of gravity.
  • 01:09:38
    Here it is.
  • 01:09:39
    - The booster is there on your screen.
  • 01:09:41
    It is making its way back to the launch site.
  • 01:09:44
    We are going to attempt the catch
  • 01:09:46
    using the chopsticks.
  • 01:09:47
    We did hear the confirmation
  • 01:09:49
    that the command was sent to the tower.
  • 01:09:52
    We are go for catch.
  • 01:09:55
    And you can see how fast this vehicle is moving
  • 01:10:00
    on the left hand side.
  • 01:10:05
    - [indiscernible] - Landing burn engine ignited.
  • 01:10:09
    We're now down to three raptor engines.
  • 01:10:12
    We can see those chopsticks now into view.
  • 01:10:27
    - Booster ready for shutdown.
  • 01:10:29
    - [indscernible]
  • 01:10:38
    - This is absolutely insane.
  • 01:10:41
    On the first ever attempt,
  • 01:10:43
    we have successfully caught the super heavy booster
  • 01:10:47
    back at the launch tower.
  • 01:10:50
    What an incredible view.
  • 01:10:55
    - Are you kidding me?
  • 01:11:01
    - Guys, I'm sorry.
  • 01:11:03
    Like, even at this day and age,
  • 01:11:06
    what we just saw, that looked like magic.
  • 01:11:09
    I am, like, shaking right now. That was --
  • 01:11:13
    - Yeah.
  • 01:11:15
    - They're like they're at a football game,
  • 01:11:16
    like, yeah, it's awesome to be fired up
  • 01:11:18
    about technology and smarts and mathematics
  • 01:11:21
    and taking risks. That's awesome.
  • 01:11:23
    Something that's actually like, yeah, that's awesome.
  • 01:11:26
    I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,
  • 01:11:28
    do we get like that with God
  • 01:11:30
    when we see somebody come to know Christ,
  • 01:11:32
    when we see somebody have a spiritual breakthrough,
  • 01:11:34
    when we see a healing, we understand
  • 01:11:37
    how God has done hard things for us
  • 01:11:39
    and died on a Cross and resurrected
  • 01:11:42
    and the same Spirit that gives life
  • 01:11:44
    to His body gives life to ours?
  • 01:11:46
    Do we have that level of joy and excitement?
  • 01:11:49
    Well, yes, somebody does. I hope we do.
  • 01:11:52
    My goodness. Man, I tell you what.
  • 01:11:57
    The reason why there was such emotion there
  • 01:12:00
    was because it was hard. It was hard.
  • 01:12:04
    That's why if you're catching a baseball with your son,
  • 01:12:07
    they're not going to do anything.
  • 01:12:08
    But when that happened, that was hard and inspires us.
  • 01:12:14
    Hey, have you ever thought this?
  • 01:12:15
    Maybe the reason why God isn't moving more
  • 01:12:18
    or we're not seeing Him do more things
  • 01:12:20
    that we want Him to do is because
  • 01:12:23
    the things He wants to do, He's put them
  • 01:12:26
    in escrow in all of our accounts,
  • 01:12:30
    and He's waiting to do things until we fund it.
  • 01:12:34
    Have you ever considered that? You ever consider that?
  • 01:12:36
    Why is it that we all know it takes
  • 01:12:40
    a lot, a lot of money to go
  • 01:12:41
    from the earth up into the heavens,
  • 01:12:44
    but we think it shouldn't take much money
  • 01:12:45
    at all for the heavens to come to earth?
  • 01:12:48
    I don't -- I don't understand that,
  • 01:12:49
    the reason we think that is because that's hard.
  • 01:12:53
    It's hard. And we don't want to think that.
  • 01:12:55
    We want to think all we have to do is is pray.
  • 01:12:57
    We want to think all I have to do is think nice thoughts.
  • 01:12:59
    We all want to think that the megachurch over there,
  • 01:13:02
    Crossroads, they'll they'll handle it.
  • 01:13:03
    Hey, guess what? The megachurch over there is us.
  • 01:13:08
    It's us.
  • 01:13:10
    And God pulls us together, his family together,
  • 01:13:14
    and He asks us, "Will you be part of
  • 01:13:16
    the lineage that does hard things?"
  • 01:13:19
    That's the history of awakening, friends.
  • 01:13:21
    History of awakenings, revival is
  • 01:13:22
    people do hard things.
  • 01:13:24
    And they're very expensive,
  • 01:13:26
    that's why they don't last long and they just flame out.
  • 01:13:32
    But to see a move of God,
  • 01:13:34
    to have the shot at an awakening,
  • 01:13:36
    which we don't know for sure if you can have it.
  • 01:13:38
    We can we can do the things that are in our territories.
  • 01:13:41
    But ultimately, an awakening that comes across
  • 01:13:43
    the region is something that the Holy Spirit does
  • 01:13:45
    and we can't control the Holy Spirit.
  • 01:13:46
    Jesus says The Holy Spirit is like wind.
  • 01:13:48
    You can't predict Him, He goes here or there,
  • 01:13:50
    but we can predict this.
  • 01:13:52
    If we as individuals don't embrace doing hard things,
  • 01:13:55
    the work of God is not going to happen inside of us.
  • 01:13:57
    It's simultaneously here.
  • 01:13:58
    See the simultaneous thing, the work of God,
  • 01:14:01
    we need to be about pushing that. That's hard.
  • 01:14:03
    But really for us to just grow in the fruit of the Spirit,
  • 01:14:07
    we have -- we need -- we, me, me, I,
  • 01:14:10
    I need the hard thing. We all do.
  • 01:14:14
    That's always how God has formed us.
  • 01:14:16
    So I don't know what God's going to say
  • 01:14:18
    to me and the Tome family with all this stuff.
  • 01:14:21
    I don't know who's going to say with you
  • 01:14:23
    all today is, "Hey, let's join the --
  • 01:14:25
    Let's join the family of God tradition
  • 01:14:28
    and embrace that He calls His children to hard things.
  • 01:14:31
    He loves us and He gives us vision
  • 01:14:33
    and He gives us things that are difficult
  • 01:14:36
    because that's how His children are formed
  • 01:14:38
    and prepared for the future.
  • 01:14:40
    And to be like Jesus, that means we have
  • 01:14:43
    to have a life like His, which was hard.
  • 01:14:47
    God, You're good. You're good and You are patient.
  • 01:14:51
    I can't believe how patient You are
  • 01:14:53
    with soft people like me.
  • 01:14:54
    I can't believe how You, man, You just give me
  • 01:14:57
    chance after chance and you give me
  • 01:14:59
    resource after resource and blessing after blessing.
  • 01:15:01
    I have more things I could have ever, ever imagined
  • 01:15:03
    that I would have.
  • 01:15:04
    I've got an easier life than
  • 01:15:06
    I ever, ever thought that I would have.
  • 01:15:07
    It's really it's great.
  • 01:15:11
    And I also know that unfettered ease
  • 01:15:15
    is not good for my soul.
  • 01:15:18
    And so I give You myself, and I ask for You
  • 01:15:23
    to be clear over the next few weeks,
  • 01:15:25
    and we ask that, God.
  • 01:15:26
    Use our church. Look at these people, God.
  • 01:15:28
    They came in here today
  • 01:15:29
    knowing they were going to get pushed.
  • 01:15:31
    And here they are. They sat through it.
  • 01:15:33
    God, speak to us, nudge us, form us.
  • 01:15:35
    And I pray these things
  • 01:15:37
    according to the name of Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:15:45
    - Man, I've been around Crossroads for 15 years now.
  • 01:15:49
    Started as a volunteer even before coming on staff.
  • 01:15:51
    This place never ceases to push me, like,
  • 01:15:54
    to challenge me and stretch me.
  • 01:15:56
    Some of the stuff Brian said, I'm just like,
  • 01:15:59
    "Dang, that's so good and tough to hear."
  • 01:16:01
    And I'm, honestly, I'm reminded
  • 01:16:03
    of being around this place for a few other seasons like this
  • 01:16:06
    where we're leaning into something financially
  • 01:16:08
    as a church, and the stuff that
  • 01:16:10
    went up on the table was my wife's engagement ring
  • 01:16:13
    and a down payment for a house.
  • 01:16:15
    And those are -- that felt like huge risks at the time.
  • 01:16:19
    And it was and it is.
  • 01:16:21
    And these are also small seasons in my life
  • 01:16:24
    that we grew the most, that we, like,
  • 01:16:26
    saw God show up in real tangible ways.
  • 01:16:27
    So while I'm nervous about what's happening,
  • 01:16:31
    I'm also super excited about it.
  • 01:16:32
    - Man, I love that, and same, same.
  • 01:16:34
    There's a part of me that's like, okay, once again
  • 01:16:38
    there's an opportunity to trust God,
  • 01:16:39
    once again there's a risk, right?
  • 01:16:41
    And I think for all of us there's an invitation in that.
  • 01:16:44
    And so we know that one of the ways
  • 01:16:46
    that you're on this Journey is just by listening
  • 01:16:49
    to the messages and getting a guide and doing this work.
  • 01:16:51
    We also know this. We know there is more
  • 01:16:54
    than we could ever talk about that God has called us to,
  • 01:16:57
    we talk about these four territories: camps, reach out,
  • 01:17:00
    digital, you heard about some of that today,
  • 01:17:02
    and then also sites, immersive experiences at sites.
  • 01:17:05
    And that's why we're doing these things
  • 01:17:06
    called Mission Briefings. I've done one so far,
  • 01:17:09
    and going to do some more coming up.
  • 01:17:10
    And it's just this opportunity
  • 01:17:12
    to make this big place small, to ask your questions,
  • 01:17:14
    to learn more about the things that
  • 01:17:16
    God has actually called us to as a community.
  • 01:17:18
    And we're doing one of these online.
  • 01:17:19
    So I want to encourage you to mark your calendar
  • 01:17:21
    and be there on November 4 at 7:30.
  • 01:17:24
    Our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson is going to be doing one online.
  • 01:17:27
    And, yes, you will be able to still ask your questions.
  • 01:17:30
    So I just want to encourage you to lean in,
  • 01:17:32
    take advantage of all the ways that
  • 01:17:34
    you can be together and be on this Journey with us.
  • 01:17:37
    - Yeah, that's right. And the whole 10X Push,
  • 01:17:39
    it's about bringing heaven to earth, right?
  • 01:17:42
    And that happens spiritually,
  • 01:17:44
    and that also happens physically as we meet
  • 01:17:47
    not just spiritual needs
  • 01:17:48
    but meet physical needs right where God has us.
  • 01:17:51
    And one of the ways that's coming up, it's super practical
  • 01:17:53
    and we'd love for you to be involved in
  • 01:17:55
    is Thankgiving Food Drive.
  • 01:17:56
    We've done this for over a decade.
  • 01:17:58
    Tens of thousands of meals that we've made happen for families.
  • 01:18:02
    So, if you're in a part of the world,
  • 01:18:04
    or specifically a part of the country where
  • 01:18:05
    blessing someone with a Thanksgiving Food Drive box,
  • 01:18:08
    like, making sure they have an incredible meal
  • 01:18:10
    this Thanksgiving, we'd love to help make that happen.
  • 01:18:13
    We will ship you a box with all the different lists
  • 01:18:15
    and everything you need to make
  • 01:18:17
    an incredible meal for somebody. You can sign up.
  • 01:18:20
    If you are local near one of our physical sites,
  • 01:18:22
    you can pick up those boxes beginning next week.
  • 01:18:24
    But if you're online we'll ship it all to you
  • 01:18:26
    so you can get started.
  • 01:18:27
    Just head to Crossroads.net/TFD.
  • 01:18:30
    - We are so glad that you joined us today.
  • 01:18:32
    And I hope you were impacted.
  • 01:18:33
    I hope that God stirred something in you.
  • 01:18:36
    Maybe there's something God's illuminating
  • 01:18:38
    and He wants you to put on the table.
  • 01:18:40
    I want to encourage you to keep saying yes.
  • 01:18:42
    As you keep saying yes,
  • 01:18:43
    I believe God can spark revival in you.
  • 01:18:45
    That's what we're all looking for is a 10X impact
  • 01:18:48
    and God wants that for your life.
  • 01:18:49
    So we will see you right back here next week.

Oct 26, 2024 • 1 hr 18 mins 55 sec

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