Commitment Weekend

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads

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and welcome to week six of the 10X Push.

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This is a huge weekend for our church

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and for what God's going to do in this place

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over the next ten years.

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Hey, my name is Andy Ryder. I lead Crossroads Anywhere.

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- I'm Kyle. I'm Lead Pastor and it is,

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it's an amazing morning.

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We've got people gathering all over the place

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in Cincinnati, Lexington, Dayton, Columbus,

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and all over the country, wherever you are

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tuning in for today, it's going to be amazing.

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- Yeah, we're going to get started in just a few minutes.

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But so thankful to have you guys,

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not just watching with us,

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but a part of our church and on the team

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looking ahead to ten years of impact with us.

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- On April 20th, 1961,

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newly elected President John F. Kennedy

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asked Vice President Lyndon Johnson

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what it would take

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to beat the Russians in the space race.

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They had repeatedly outpaced America

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every step along the way.

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Eight days earlier, the Soviets

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had put the first man in space.

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Competing with Russia on

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all the logical next steps in space exploration

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would not move the needle.

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America had to commit to landing a man on the moon.

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The scientists estimated that it would require

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a 10X increase in rocket technology to get to the moon.

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It had to double the strength

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of its current infrastructure,

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and it had to invent entirely new technologies

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and capabilities that had

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never been thought of as possible.

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Less than a month later,

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in an address to a joint session of Congress,

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Kennedy set a national goal

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of landing a man on the moon

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before the end of the decade.

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10x in ten years was an audacious, impossible goal.

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- We choose to go to the moon in this decade

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and do the other things,

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not because they are easy,

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but because they are hard.

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-T-minus 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

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- Not because they are easy,

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but because they are hard.

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- Ignition sequence start.

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- Not because they are easy... - 5, 4, 3...

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- but because they are hard.

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- Liftoff. We have a liftoff,

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32 minutes past the hour, liftoff on Apollo 11.

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- We got a roll program.

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- Neil Armstrong reporting

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the roll and pitch program,

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which puts Apollo 11 on proper heading.

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- Eight years later, the U.S. landed on the moon.

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- That's one small step for man,

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one giant leap for mankind.

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- To get there required the efforts

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of almost 400,000 people working together

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towards this common vision,

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and the Russians never made it.

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We are also in a race, but this is a race

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to save as many people as possible.

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- Surely the opening vistas of space

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promise high costs and hardships

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as well as high reward.

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- We also have an enemy, but our enemy

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is not flesh and blood.

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It is instead the spiritual forces of evil

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that rule this world.

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And our job is to fight in this fight,

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to work with God so that life happens

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on earth as it is in heaven.

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Most measures, however, say we're not winning.

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Depression, suicide, divorce, loneliness,

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and mental health issues are all rising.

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The world is controlled by those dark forces,

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and it is consuming our neighborhoods.

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To win the race against the enemy

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and his plans for our world, we also require

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a 10X increase in the next ten years.

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While 50,000 people connected to Crossroads

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won't move the needle,

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500,000 people can begin to flip the stats

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and see real change.

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To achieve 10X in ten years is a moonshot.

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It requires Crossroads to rethink

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all of our systems and processes

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to build for that goal.

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In the book of Isaiah

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God tells His people to do two things.

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They are to strengthen their foundation,

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and they are to expand their territories

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so they can heal the world.

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To fulfill this command, Crossroads

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must strengthen our current ministries

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to serve as a foundation on which

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to pursue a 10X moonshot.

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And we must attempt things

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that have never been done before in ministry,

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but have the potential to expand wide

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and get us to our moon.

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The work God has given Crossroads

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to bring real change and hope for life

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on earth as it is in heaven.

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This will be hard, but we do hard things.

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This will take patience,

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but we can hit the same nail time and time again.

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This will require bold thinking,

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but we've already earned the right

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to win in high potential areas.

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This requires a giant push to get going.

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That starts now.

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- The countdown is on. We are close now, everybody.

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Welcome to Commitment Weekend here at Crossroads.

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If you're joining us in the site, welcome,

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or maybe you're joining us online.

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We've got people all over the place.

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- Yeah. People all over the globe, all over

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the country who are a part of our online community

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and in physical buildings like this.

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Hey, if you are still in one of our atriums,

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this is your moment. Get your drink. Come on in.

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If you're at home, hey, just get your coffee

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and head to your couch or your computer,

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wherever you're watching.

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You do not want to miss a moment of this.

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- Yeah, this is the end of our six week Journey

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that we've all been on, asking God,

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what does it look like to 10X our faith

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and to 10X the impact that He's having

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through Crossroads in the Kingdom?

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I'm curious, what has this been like

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for you personally, Andy?

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- I mean, that is the thing, right?

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Like, it's not just a thing the church is doing.

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It's a thing that, like, we're doing.

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So for my wife and I, like, this has been challenging.

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Like, it has not been an easy thing.

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We don't get a pass because we're on staff.

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Like, it's been a hard, discerning process,

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like, God, what what are You having us step into?

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Like, sacrificing, committing financially in any way,

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like, it's -- I don't think it's meant to be easy.

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Right? So I have felt stretched.

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I've felt pushed. And that's good for me.

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Like, I get comfortable too quickly and too easily.

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And so I'm glad to be a part of a place

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that doesn't let me stay there.

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- That's right. There's a verse we talked about

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before about God loves a cheerful giver.

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I always think about the rollercoaster,

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you know right when you get to the top of the hill

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and you're like, ah, it's terrifying, and also it's fun.

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It's like that kind of a moment. - Yes.

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- That's exactly what it feels like.

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I think for us personally, for Sarah and I,

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the coolest part of this one has been

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engaging with our kids at a different level.

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They're just a little bit older.

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They're going to come to the next service,

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sit with us and commit as a family.

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We did a family mission briefing,

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talking them through the projects, just like,

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"Hey, here's what we're doing and here's why.

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Here's what we hope it goes to.

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Here's the people that we're trying to help."

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Which if you're a parent and you hear that

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and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I want to do that,"

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you can totally do that on your own after today.

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Absolutely tell your kids about what you did

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and why and walk them through some of the projects,

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and you'll be building a generation of people

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who want to be generous and lean into God's Kingdom.

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Excited for what's to come.

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- Yes, that's right. Hey, thank you for joining us.

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We are about to get started

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with week six of the 10X Push.

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- Astronauts report it feels good.

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T-minus 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

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12, 11,10, 9. Ignition sequence start.

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6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, and [indiscernible]

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Liftoff. We have a liftoff.

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Apollo 11, this is Houston. You are go for staging.

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- If you're part of Crossroads,

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you know that today is a special day

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because today is the day that we get to say,

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not just with our words, but with our actions,

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that what we want is for the Kingdom of heaven

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to come on earth more than we want anything else.

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Today is the day we say,

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"God, you can have all of my heart."

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Now, if you're brand new, welcome today.

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I don't know how you got here today,

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but today is a special one.

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You're going to see something

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you're not going to see anywhere else.

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You might see crowds like this gather

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to sing songs at concerts

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or to cheer on their favorite sports team.

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But today, what you're going to witness

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is a movement of thousands of people

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gathered together to sacrificially give

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so that other people can experience Jesus.

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That's what today is all about.

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No matter who you are,

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go ahead and stand up and sing with us.

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- That's right.

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Today is all about doing this together,

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so why don't we do this together right at the start.

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Hands together like this

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all the way from the top to the bottom.

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Everything about today is a response

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to who He is and what He's done.

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So we're going to sing this together. Sing.

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- Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to him who is able

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to do far more than you can imagine,

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than you could think,

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to the one who is working within us,

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to the one who's working within us,

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to Him be glory forever and ever in the church

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and for generations to come.

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Everything until today is responded

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to God at work within us.

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His character is never changed. He's faithful.

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His mercies and His kindness are new every morning.

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So we sing.

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- Lord, you're so good.

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You've been constant. You've been faithful.

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No matter what we face, You never leave us.

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You stand firm, constant, faithful.

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Thank you. Jesus.

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Everything we brought in here today,

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we just say You can have it

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because I trust You more with it.

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If it's a worry, if it's a concern,

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if it's great faith, if it's joy,

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all of it belongs and we just say it's Yours

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and You can have it because You can do far more with it

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than we could ever imagine or think.

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I've seen it true, God, I trust you.

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I pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Y'all sound beautiful today,

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and we're just getting started.

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Hey, why don't you turn to somebody next to you

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and say, "Hey, I'm glad to be here with you."

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If you're online, we're glad you're with us, too.

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Man, I love being in a room,

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I love being in a room like this

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where you can hear each other sing.

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But one of the greatest things we sing

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is our own personal story.

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You're about to hear our friend Sharon's story.

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- So I grew up in an abusive household.

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My father was physically abusive.

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He was an alcoholic.

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My mom didn't know how to be a mother.

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And so it's like I grew up alone.

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I didn't know anything about God,

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anything about Jesus until I moved to Cincinnati.

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I was about 33 years old and a friend of mine

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asked me, "What church do you go to?"

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And I said, "I don't go to church."

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And she said, "Okay, come and go with me."

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And that's how I started to develop

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a relationship with the Lord.

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And I see in Him as the father

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that I did not have when I grew up.

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A good friend of mine

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is a commissioned pastor at Crossroads.

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I said, "I have a question for you.

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I heard that Crossroads does not preach the Bible."

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And she said, "Sharon, yes, we preach the Bible

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at Crossroads and if you don't believe it,

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you need to come to a service."

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You know, I came to her church, she goes to Mason.

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So, I'm sitting in the atrium and I'm waiting for her.

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And I see everybody, I see black, I see white,

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I see Hispanic, I see old, I see young,

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I see everybody.

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And so I heard in my spirit the Lord says,

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"This is what my church looks like."

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I'm just completely blown away.

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So I know the Lord's telling me

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I need to come to Crossroads.

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The first thing I did was start on the auditorium team.

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I love, love, love the auditorium team.

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I'm still on the auditorium team.

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I tried to participate in other activities,

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so one thing I did was Freed Up.

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Freed Up is an initiative that's put on by the church

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and it's to help people experience

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what it looks like to live with a godly perspective

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with respect to taking care of money.

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So I went through that program because

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I had issues with money in the past.

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Now I'm happy to say I have no debt,

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except my house payment.

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You know, I try to live in moderation.

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I live within my own means.

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I save, I give, I love to give money

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because that's why God gives it to me

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so that I can give it to someone else.

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I gave to the last campaign, that was the only --

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I've only been in one campaign since I've been here.

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And at that time I had a really good job,

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big salary, bonuses, the whole bit.

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I was a vice president.

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So I thought, "Okay, I got two children in college,

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you know, what can I do?

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I know it's over and above."

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And so I thought, "Okay, $5,000."

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And right after that I heard in my spirit,

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"No, $10,000."

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Wow. That's a big number.

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So, you know, it's like, okay, I believe it's the Lord,

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so I'm going to do $10,000.

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So I write the $10,000 down.

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I had it all planned.

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And so it's like, "Okay, I'll give from my bonus.

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And then you know, next year

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I'll have my bonus because it's a several years.

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So it's like, okay."

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I give my first, um, I think it was $2,500.

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Well, right after that, I lost my job.

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I didn't get another job easily at all.

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And that's when the fear kind of started to kick in.

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And I think that's probably one of

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the most impactful times for me.

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I paid every bill.

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I was out of work for a year.

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He covered me.

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I just -- I know, like I said,

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there was no coincidence that I lost my job

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at the same time of the campaign because

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He had to pull me out of this, this independence.

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So through that time, like, I hear from the Lord

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and it's in my spirit.

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You know, He says to me, "Sharon, don't worry,

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I got you."

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And so that whole experience for me was,

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"Okay, yes, you had this happen in your life,

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but I got you. You're good. You're okay."

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I got a new job in 2019.

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So I'm sitting and I'm talking to the Lord,

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and it's like, you know, "Thank you, Lord,

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for my new job. I really appreciate it."

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I said, "But, you know, I was like,

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here in my salary and now I'm here."

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And I heard so clearly He said, "No, you were here.

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You had zero, and I brought you up to here."

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And so it kind of, like, reframed my thought process,

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like, stop looking at the old

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and look at this new thing that I have for you.

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And so I just believe now whatever He says to me,

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whatever it looks like, it's like

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He's going to give me the tools that I need

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to get to be where it is.

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I don't know where it's going to come from,

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but I think He's going to push me

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out of my comfort zone again.

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How am I going to respond?

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I mean, I still have those same questions,

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but I just I go back to "I got you."

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And so I just, I have faith in that, that He's --

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Wherever He wants me to go, He's got me.

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- So encouraging.

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Today is a day of commitment.

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It's also a day of encouragement.

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The Bible says, don't let your right hand

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know what the left is doing, which is trying

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to encourage us to never give

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so that someone knows what we give

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so that we get some sort of strokes.

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Now, however, in the Bible, again and again

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and again, we know specific numbers

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of what people have given.

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And that's because it's not bad

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to know what someone gives, if it's okay with them.

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It's bad to give out of a condition

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of wanting people to think

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you're really special and spiritual.

00:31:00

We're going to give a number of stories today

00:31:02

just to people across the broad spectrum

00:31:04

who have heard from God or want God to hear from them,

00:31:08

how much they think about Him,

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and have made a three year commitment

00:31:11

above and beyond what they regularly give

00:31:14

to support the Push for 10X in the territories

00:31:17

that God has inviting us to to inhabit and expand.

00:31:22

And this last Wednesday, we had a leadership event.

00:31:25

Everybody who's a leader of Crossroads came.

00:31:27

Leaders go first, leaders set the pace,

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and we had leaders come forward and give commitments,

00:31:32

their advanced financial commitments,

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and they had an opportunity, we had an opportunity

00:31:36

to actually write down our story of what was behind this,

00:31:39

and it was really moving.

00:31:41

And I think you'll be thankful to see this.

00:32:01

[music]

00:36:33

- Thank you. Great.

00:36:41

So here we go, it comes down to this.

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We've been in the Push for 10X.

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We are coming here.

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You know what you are coming for today,

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unless you didn't.

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Let me remind you if it's your first time today.

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You're going, "What in the world is this place?

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This is freaking weird."

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I know it is, very weird, very, very abnormal.

00:37:00

This is the day that we've been building towards

00:37:02

where we're seeing if God has

00:37:04

ten times more space in our life.

00:37:06

We're seeing if we want ten times more

00:37:09

of God's presence in our church,

00:37:10

where we're seeing if we can 10X the impact

00:37:13

that God would have us do over the next ten years.

00:37:15

And for the next three years, we're going to be giving,

00:37:18

those of us who are going to do that,

00:37:20

are giving above and beyond

00:37:22

what we regularly give for three years.

00:37:25

What we regularly give goes to mission stuff,

00:37:28

our partners, Kids' Club things, and all the stuff

00:37:31

we do to build into students, salaries,

00:37:33

mortgage, Wi-Fi, videos that we produce,

00:37:37

the all the benevolence ministry we have,

00:37:39

all the the stuff we do to to help people

00:37:41

who are in need, all that stuff.

00:37:43

All that stuff needs to continue

00:37:45

and there's new territory we're going to take.

00:37:47

And that's what today is about.

00:37:49

I -- you came here to be pushed, so today I'm going to push you.

00:37:52

Are you ready for this? Are you ready?

00:37:53

Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

00:37:55

I'm going to push you.

00:37:56

I think I have something that God actually wants for you.

00:37:58

I do, I think He does. Here we go.

00:38:00

God, thank You for helping us get beyond the normal.

00:38:04

And this is not normal, and we're thankful.

00:38:06

I'm thankful for being a church where

00:38:08

a bunch of people are up for this,

00:38:09

up for a push and up for being here.

00:38:12

Would You just visit us by Your Spirit,

00:38:14

if you haven't already.

00:38:15

Help me to be clear and helpful as we come to

00:38:19

a defining moment for our church and for us.

00:38:22

We trust You.

00:38:23

And I say this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

00:38:33

When my kids were little,

00:38:34

I would play this game with them.

00:38:37

I'd lie on my back on the living room floor.

00:38:39

I grabbed my kids. I'd put them on my chest

00:38:41

and their feet would kind of be

00:38:43

on either side of my neck.

00:38:44

So if I'm, you know, I'm lying down like this,

00:38:46

I'd have my hands underneath the rear end here.

00:38:48

And we would play blastoff.

00:38:50

I'd go ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,

00:38:53

four three, two one. Blast off!

00:38:56

I go [engine sounds].

00:38:58

I'd lift 'em up and shake 'em like it's blasting off.

00:39:00

And they'd go rattling around,

00:39:02

their brain rattling off the inside of their cranium.

00:39:04

And maybe why some of them have mental issues right now.

00:39:07

But it was great, great fun.

00:39:10

Blast off. That's what's called Blast Off.

00:39:12

As I've geeked out on the Apollo program and NASA,

00:39:16

I found that that was actually the wrong,

00:39:18

the wrong phrase.

00:39:20

The actual proper phrase is commit.

00:39:23

It's a countdown to commit,

00:39:26

not countdown to blast off.

00:39:28

The Apollo 11 flight journal says this:

00:39:41

Commit. What does it mean to commit something?

00:39:44

Commitment is not a positive word in our culture.

00:39:48

We don't like to commit.

00:39:49

We don't like to commit to even dating somebody,

00:39:51

let alone marrying somebody.

00:39:52

We don't like to commit to weekend plans

00:39:54

unless we have something that is so sold out

00:39:57

we've got to get there a year in advance,

00:39:59

because everyone wants to be there

00:40:00

or something like that.

00:40:01

We just don't like to commit.

00:40:02

What does it mean to commit?

00:40:04

I want to give you another C word

00:40:05

that's very similar too, it's the word consecrate.

00:40:09

Consecrate. In the book of Joshua, chapter three,

00:40:12

we have the story of the nation of Israel

00:40:14

who's going to a land where they haven't been.

00:40:17

For some of you today,

00:40:18

this is a land you've never been in.

00:40:21

Like, "Wait a minute, I'm going to make

00:40:23

a financial commitment because

00:40:25

I want to get closer to God,

00:40:26

and I'm going to give money that

00:40:28

I'm not going to get any physical products for,

00:40:30

I'm not going to have anything more on the shelves for,

00:40:33

I'm not going to, no one's going to know about it.

00:40:35

I'm not going to get strokes for being this or that."

00:40:37

I know, I know, it's really strange. It is.

00:40:40

Anytime you follow God, it's strange.

00:40:41

Most people don't want to do it.

00:40:43

That's why it's called The Narrow Path,

00:40:45

instead of the Wide Path.

00:40:46

And when Joshua is going over,

00:40:49

leading people across the Jordan River,

00:40:50

which is the edge of what they've all known

00:40:53

into the new Promised Land, which they've not known,

00:40:57

he gives them this pep talk in Joshua 3:5, he says:

00:41:07

Consecrate yourself. Consecrate.

00:41:09

What does it mean to consecrate yourself?

00:41:10

It means if I'm here where everybody else is,

00:41:13

I set myself aside.

00:41:16

If I'm here where everybody else is,

00:41:18

I allow myself to be used by God.

00:41:21

If I'm here, I dedicate and set myself aside

00:41:25

for God's purposes in a moment,

00:41:27

which in this situation

00:41:28

was stepping into the Jordan River.

00:41:31

It also happens, like, when you're baptized,

00:41:33

it's a moment where it's important for you

00:41:35

to declare yourself.

00:41:38

In moments like this,

00:41:39

we get to consecrate ourselves because

00:41:41

we step out from the crowd and do things

00:41:42

that other people who don't know God don't want to do.

00:41:46

Shoot, some people in here don't even know God,

00:41:48

we're just in love with these territories,

00:41:51

we want to support it in some way.

00:41:53

It takes an amazing amount of effort

00:41:55

to come against the norm.

00:41:57

The norm is the gravitational pull in our culture.

00:42:00

Just a little refresher, the way gravity works,

00:42:02

the gravitational pull works is the object

00:42:04

with the most mass sucks things around it.

00:42:08

So the sun has more mass than the earth,

00:42:10

and so therefore the earth revolves around the sun.

00:42:14

The earth has more mass than the moon,

00:42:16

so therefore the moon revolves around the Earth.

00:42:19

The lunar module spaceships that we send off

00:42:22

have less mass than the moon,

00:42:24

so therefore they revolve around the moon.

00:42:27

There is a gravitational pull in this world

00:42:31

that's pulling you and I to the kingdom of thingdom,

00:42:34

pulling you and I to to living by sight only,

00:42:38

pulling you and I to be about ourselves.

00:42:42

And the amount of effort it takes to break

00:42:45

out of that gravitational pull is significant.

00:42:47

You've all seen it, the videos of liftoff.

00:42:51

Why is that rocket so massive?

00:42:54

It's because it's storing all the fuel,

00:42:56

because most of it is spent

00:42:58

in the first few minutes trying to get

00:43:00

outside the gravitational force of the Earth.

00:43:03

There's also a translunar injection.

00:43:06

And then on the way back to Earth,

00:43:08

a trans-earth injection, which is the effort

00:43:10

it takes to break out of the gravitational pull,

00:43:14

break through the atmosphere,

00:43:16

and have a landing into a different land.

00:43:19

Friends, if you're going to get to a new place,

00:43:21

that's why we've been pushing each other,

00:43:22

having a trans-kingdom injection

00:43:26

is what we're looking for.

00:43:27

Going out of the kingdom of this world

00:43:29

where I only worry about my accounts,

00:43:30

what I can visibly see, what I can control,

00:43:33

what makes me comfortable,

00:43:34

and getting into the Kingdom of God,

00:43:36

which is about having other people be blessed,

00:43:38

having other people come to know God,

00:43:40

having the world operate the way God wants it to operate,

00:43:42

not the way I necessarily want it to operate.

00:43:45

And that energy that it takes to do

00:43:47

a trans-Kingdom injection,

00:43:50

that's what we're trying to fight for today.

00:43:53

King David in the Bible is just

00:43:56

a guy I go to again and again.

00:43:58

I just find him fascinating.

00:44:01

You may know him at least, just about everybody

00:44:03

knows him from David and Goliath.

00:44:04

That's a great story.

00:44:05

But he also has his real screw ups, too.

00:44:08

He has an adulterous affair, that's not a good thing.

00:44:11

He also has, towards the end of his reign,

00:44:15

a census, he takes a census, which isn't a good idea.

00:44:18

And we're not sure exactly why

00:44:20

it is a bad idea to take a census?

00:44:22

God's not against counting.

00:44:24

You've got a whole book for counting.

00:44:25

It's called the Book of Numbers.

00:44:27

God's not against taking attendance

00:44:29

or anything like that.

00:44:30

I don't know why God gets so upset about this,

00:44:34

but whatever was going on in David's heart,

00:44:36

those in his inner circle knew that this was not right.

00:44:40

Maybe David was just taking a census

00:44:42

in the same way that many of us

00:44:43

just look at our online accounts,

00:44:45

just because we want to see how much money we have.

00:44:47

No purpose, just want to feel better about myself

00:44:49

or how much money I have in the bank

00:44:51

that I don't even know

00:44:52

what I'm going to do with it, some of us.

00:44:54

Maybe it was that, we don't know why,

00:44:55

but Jesus -- or excuse me, but David

00:44:57

is considering, he wants to do the census

00:44:59

and he's got people close to him,

00:45:00

"Dude, dude, what are you doing?

00:45:02

What are you doing? Stop! Don't, don't do the census."

00:45:04

This is there's something weird going on for you here.

00:45:06

There's no, there was no point to it.

00:45:08

But he goes and does it, and God is not happy,

00:45:11

just like his inner circle told him would be the case.

00:45:13

And God comes back to him and He gives him

00:45:15

three options for punishment.

00:45:18

And David takes option number three,

00:45:21

which is God bringing a plague on the nation.

00:45:26

And the reason he takes option number three

00:45:29

is because he knows God is graceful and merciful,

00:45:32

and maybe He won't do it for as long as he says he will.

00:45:37

Pretty bold, pretty bold.

00:45:38

So this is where we come to now.

00:45:40

Now David wants to worship God.

00:45:43

And this is a great story.

00:45:46

So he's heading off to this guy's property nearby.

00:45:49

He's going to worship there.

00:45:50

He wants to send God an offering.

00:45:52

So God sees him saying, "God, even though

00:45:54

things aren't going well for me, I'm for you.

00:45:56

Even though things are not the way I want them right now,

00:45:58

I want you to know I'm for You."

00:46:01

Here's where the story goes.

00:46:02

He's walking this guy's land, his name is Araunah.

00:46:30

Threshing floor is, when you would reap wheat,

00:46:34

wheat has a kernel in it

00:46:35

and got the chaff on the outside of it.

00:46:38

And you would take it to a table,

00:46:40

and basically to a table, and you would beat it,

00:46:43

you would beat it,

00:46:44

and then you would throw it up in the air.

00:46:47

And because it's on the hill,

00:46:49

there's always a breeze up there.

00:46:51

And the wind would take away the chaff,

00:46:54

the kernel, it would go away.

00:46:55

And the heavier stuff,

00:46:56

i.e. The gravitational pull mass,

00:46:58

the heavier stuff, the kernel drops down to the ground.

00:47:02

This is why at our camp property, Base Camp,

00:47:05

it's always cold there.

00:47:07

It seems like it's always cold

00:47:08

because our current property,

00:47:10

not the new property we bought beside it,

00:47:11

that's all one property now,

00:47:13

but the current property is all in a ridgeline.

00:47:14

There's a lot of wind up there, so that's why

00:47:16

he's up there threshing the wheat just on the top,

00:47:19

Araunah is, you know, throwing it up in the air,

00:47:22

wind coming, taking away the chaff

00:47:23

and the good stuff falling down.

00:47:24

David wants the same spot because he figures,

00:47:27

"I want to go to the highest place.

00:47:29

I want to get closer to God," that's his thinking.

00:47:31

And as he's going up, Araunah sees him,

00:47:34

they have this interaction.

00:48:00

Araunah may have a heart for David.

00:48:01

Araunah may have a heart for God.

00:48:03

Araunah also just could be a smart guy saying,

00:48:07

"I got the king here.

00:48:09

I should just give him some stuff.

00:48:12

Give him some stuff

00:48:13

and then he'll look favorably on me

00:48:14

with future edicts and stuff."

00:48:16

Say, "You don't need to buy the land from me.

00:48:18

Here, just use the land.

00:48:19

In fact, I've got oxen here. I've got sheep.

00:48:21

Fine. You could do your thing. Don't worry, king.

00:48:23

Let me take care of it for you."

00:48:26

You would think that David's excited?

00:48:27

A lot of us to be excited, because a lot of us,

00:48:30

the way, the standard way of America,

00:48:32

the standard way of the kingdom of thingdom,

00:48:34

kingdom of this world is, "Hey,

00:48:36

if someone else will pay for it, great.

00:48:37

I don't want to.

00:48:38

Someone else can take care of it. Great.

00:48:41

Whew, I don't want to."

00:48:43

Let's have somebody else do X, Y, Z,

00:48:45

because whenever you and I have to do it,

00:48:48

it's always a sacrifice.

00:48:49

In fact, anytime you do anything

00:48:52

that honors God it's a sacrifice.

00:48:54

When you forgive somebody, that's a sacrifice.

00:48:56

What's it a sacrifice of?

00:48:57

You're forgiving somebody

00:49:00

and your sacrificing the desire to get even,

00:49:03

because you're not going to get even.

00:49:05

You're -- when you forgive somebody, it costs you.

00:49:09

When God forgives us, it costs us His Son,

00:49:12

His Son dying on a Cross for us

00:49:15

so we don't have to pay the penalty eternally.

00:49:19

Let's see what David seems to say

00:49:21

to this unbelievable deal.

00:49:34

"Nope, nope. I'm going to take it as a price.

00:49:37

No, I won't."

00:49:39

See this, he knows this.

00:49:41

There's a kind of worship that only comes

00:49:43

from giving and sacrifice.

00:49:45

We can do this all this day long and sing.

00:49:48

It's wonderful. Great. I love doing that.

00:49:50

But there's a kind of worship and sacrifice

00:49:53

that only comes when we're becoming like Jesus.

00:49:55

We don't have any stories in the Bible

00:49:57

of Jesus raising His hands and singing.

00:49:58

I love it, I love it, I love it.

00:50:00

But the sacrifice we see,

00:50:01

the worship we see in the Bible

00:50:03

is Jesus laying down His life for you.

00:50:06

Philippians 2: have this same attitude in you

00:50:08

that was also in Christ Jesus.

00:50:11

Though He was equal with God,

00:50:12

did not consider equality something to be grasped,

00:50:15

but gave Himself unto death, even death on a Cross.

00:50:19

This is our model. He sacrificed Himself.

00:50:23

That was His act of worship.

00:50:26

And when we do this,

00:50:27

we have to get out of the gravitational pull,

00:50:30

the automatic systems of our day

00:50:32

that are about consumerism, buy, buy, buy,

00:50:34

buy, buy, or the automatic systems of our day,

00:50:37

which are about conservativism.

00:50:39

And I don't mean politically,

00:50:40

I just mean financially.

00:50:41

Like, "I gotta always see the numbers go up,

00:50:43

even if I don't know why.

00:50:45

I just got to see 'em go up. Got to be conservative."

00:50:47

Or cynicism, "That church. They're not --

00:50:49

They're not going to --

00:50:50

They're not going to do what they say."

00:50:52

Even we all we have every single time in 28 years,

00:50:55

the cynical gravitational pull says,

00:50:57

"Okay, something weird is happening here."

00:50:59

These are the automatic systems, friends,

00:51:00

that we live in in the kingdom of this world.

00:51:03

And when you do a trans-Kingdom injection,

00:51:06

you do and go someplace different.

00:51:09

When Lance, when they were landing the space probe.

00:51:13

Well, they had the, you know, the rocket takes off,

00:51:16

the Apollo 11, and then they've got the module

00:51:18

that comes down onto the moon.

00:51:22

And Lance Armstrong is -- I always--

00:51:23

Not Lance Armstrong, Neil.

00:51:30

Yeah, yeah. Neil, Neil Armstrong excuse me.

00:51:33

I say that a lot. Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong.

00:51:37

They were so freaked out because taking off

00:51:40

against the Earth's gravity at

00:51:41

the very, very beginning of the mission.

00:51:43

That's why that the space rocket

00:51:45

at Cape Canaveral is so massive,

00:51:47

because it's holding so much fuel,

00:51:49

because the most fuel is expended

00:51:51

in the first few seconds of liftoff,

00:51:54

because you're trying to overcome

00:51:55

the gravitational pull of the Earth.

00:51:58

And so they're mapping out every pound,

00:52:01

and they allotted them a certain amount of fuel

00:52:04

to get from the spaceship down to the moon,

00:52:07

and they needed to have at least 50% left

00:52:10

to get all the way back up.

00:52:11

So they programed it in the computer when,

00:52:13

as they were coming, because they didn't know

00:52:15

what it was going to be like when they came down.

00:52:16

They weren't really sure exactly

00:52:18

what the terrain was going to be like

00:52:19

and how the whole landing was going to go.

00:52:21

They came down and he had 19 seconds left,

00:52:25

Neil Armstrong had 19 seconds left,

00:52:27

and he automatically --

00:52:30

He overrode the automatic overdrive

00:52:32

to not just go back and say, "We've come this far.

00:52:34

I'm going to take a risk on the last 19 seconds."

00:52:37

He overrides it and they land and they get back.

00:52:40

And it's an amazing story.

00:52:41

But he overrides the automatic system.

00:52:44

You're going to have to override

00:52:46

the automatic system of the kingdom of this world

00:52:48

if you want to get to another place spiritually.

00:52:50

I don't even just talk about today.

00:52:52

I just mean holistically.

00:52:54

There's an automatic system that wants to keep

00:52:56

you doing the same things everyone else is doing,

00:52:58

thinking the same things everyone else is doing,

00:53:00

feeling the same things everybody else is feeling.

00:53:02

It's an automatic gravitational pulling system,

00:53:05

and you're going to have to come against it.

00:53:07

And part of it is embracing that one of the things

00:53:11

you get in the Kingdom of God is

00:53:13

the family value of sacrifice.

00:53:16

We don't shun it. We say, "I will not do it.

00:53:18

It has to cost me something."

00:53:20

Like, if Elon Musk was part of this church,

00:53:22

he wanted to do everything.

00:53:23

The people who are spiritually mature will go,

00:53:26

"Oh no, he's not God. I want to be part.

00:53:28

It has to cost me something.

00:53:30

He's got to be my part of the of the kingdom of God."

00:53:36

You can't be an engineer if you don't like math.

00:53:43

Sorry. Can't be an engineer if you don't like math.

00:53:46

You can't call yourself an athlete

00:53:48

if you don't like working out.

00:53:51

You can't go, "Well, I played football in high school."

00:53:53

Yeah, 30 years ago. [laughter]

00:53:57

Do you like -- You can't call yourself an athlete

00:54:01

unless you work out.

00:54:03

And you can't call yourself a Christian

00:54:05

unless you sacrifice. It's as simple as that.

00:54:09

It's a family value of choosing

00:54:12

to go without certain things

00:54:15

so that God is worshiped

00:54:16

and other people can have some things.

00:54:21

We can't promise you, we can't promise you

00:54:23

that we're going to see an awakening.

00:54:26

We can promise you, if the resources come in,

00:54:28

the territories are going to expand, because

00:54:30

our track record is that we always do

00:54:32

everything we say we're going to do.

00:54:33

We can promise you that.

00:54:34

But when it comes to awakening it's a different deal.

00:54:36

Awakening has a major X factor of the Holy Spirit.

00:54:40

And Jesus says the Holy Spirit is like wind.

00:54:43

He's unpredictable.

00:54:44

You don't know exactly what it's going to do.

00:54:46

But I can tell you this:

00:54:48

the spirit is looking to see,

00:54:50

"Is there any community out there

00:54:54

that'll give up something for My vision.

00:54:57

Is there any people out there

00:54:58

that will sacrifice something?"

00:55:00

Because there's not a lot today.

00:55:01

I can't promise you there's going to be an awakening.

00:55:04

But I can promise you this,

00:55:05

there won't be an awakening

00:55:07

if more of God's people don't embrace the value

00:55:09

of sacrifice and have a vision for 10X

00:55:11

beyond the kingdom of the thingdom in which we live.

00:55:13

This is a moment that you and I get to step into.

00:55:16

We're asked to step into it.

00:55:18

I have a friend of mine, long term friend of mine,

00:55:21

he wants to tell -- He's going to tell his story.

00:55:23

I wouldn't say he wants to tell his story.

00:55:24

He and his -- my friends told their story.

00:55:27

It was a bit uncomfortable for them.

00:55:29

And I don't want you to fixate

00:55:31

on the number in this story.

00:55:33

I want you to fixate on the hearts.

00:55:35

The number is just a matter of the heart,

00:55:38

and they have, my friends have

00:55:39

a great heart of sacrifice,

00:55:41

and I think you'll enjoy their story.

00:55:44

- We were brand new Christians, newly married.

00:55:47

- We were looking for a church home.

00:55:49

We had no -- nothing kind of really stuck.

00:55:52

- I was facilitating a friend's Bible study,

00:55:56

probably April of-- - '95?

00:55:59

- Of '95, yeah.

00:56:00

We could imagine one day

00:56:02

this turning into a seeker targeted church.

00:56:05

Two months later, we get this call from this guy,

00:56:07

Brian Wells, who we didn't know.

00:56:09

He said that he had heard about our interest

00:56:11

and wanted to talk to us.

00:56:14

And so I was pretty confident

00:56:17

he was just looking to hit us up for some money.

00:56:19

And so in my spiritual maturity at the time,

00:56:23

I ignored him.

00:56:24

And then about a week later,

00:56:26

Nancy was in the kitchen

00:56:28

and I was in the back hall right next to it.

00:56:31

And it suddenly struck me and I said to Nancy,

00:56:34

"Hey, Nancy, these guys want to start a church."

00:56:40

It was some time ago when any dreams we had

00:56:44

for what might happen were surpassed.

00:56:47

I mean, quite some time ago.

00:56:48

- The first day. - Yeah. Yeah.

00:56:49

- We were looking for 75 people, and we had 450.

00:56:53

- Yeah, the day we opened in 1996.

00:56:57

It took us a while to to figure out

00:56:59

what tithing meant for us.

00:57:02

As business owners, there are multiple streams of income.

00:57:08

And so it's clear that tithing is 10%,

00:57:10

but the question for folks with businesses

00:57:13

and, you know, net worth investments,

00:57:16

"10% of what?"

00:57:17

We were trying to be faithful

00:57:19

and doing what we felt was right at the time.

00:57:21

And then there was this, I guess

00:57:24

it was just called a building, capital campaign.

00:57:26

I'm not sure.

00:57:27

You know, it's unnerving to come up with a pledge,

00:57:32

but Nancy and I did that, and we came up with

00:57:34

a pledge that seemed reasonable to us.

00:57:39

- A lot. - Yeah, it seemed like a lot,

00:57:41

perhaps our fair share or something like that.

00:57:44

You know, I was close with Brian at the time,

00:57:46

and he invited me out to lunch.

00:57:48

He asked me, "So, what are you thinking about this campaign?"

00:57:50

And I told him what Nancy and I were planning on.

00:57:54

I said $85,000, and he said, "That's not nearly enough."

00:58:00

And it -- It shocked me.

00:58:03

What I was expecting was thank you,

00:58:06

and he said, "That's not nearly enough."

00:58:08

He knows the grip that money has on us,

00:58:13

and to give sacrificially can be a real blessing.

00:58:18

So I think he was encouraging us to give sacrificially.

00:58:21

I remember the culmination of the Journey was --

00:58:24

Was right here at -- - It didn't look like this.

00:58:26

- Yeah. No Crossroads Oakley.

00:58:28

- And it was HQ.

00:58:29

- But we were here. It was completely gutted.

00:58:32

24 years ago, Nancy and I were sitting in the back

00:58:35

and we had to write it down on a piece of paper.

00:58:39

A number came to my mind and it was so scary.

00:58:42

And the same number came to Nancy.

00:58:45

And then we had to go drop it in a box.

00:58:47

And at that time it was real.

00:58:50

- So I happen to know that

00:58:51

that was a seven figure number,

00:58:53

much larger than you intended.

00:58:55

Can I ask you just to how much that was?

00:58:58

- Mentioning that on screen's a bit uncomfortable.

00:59:00

- Yeah.

00:59:01

- We weren't planning on doing that

00:59:03

when we drove over here, but, um, yeah.

00:59:06

So we decided that night to give $1 million.

00:59:11

It was so scary that I was shaking and crying.

00:59:15

- Yeah. It was it was nerve wracking.

00:59:16

It was something I never thought I'd do.

00:59:19

- Terribly freaky. - Yeah, it was scary.

00:59:23

It was scary. It was so uncomfortable.

00:59:25

And yes, we didn't -- I mean, we were comfortable.

00:59:29

I mean, it's not like I wasn't eating,

00:59:31

but it was not nothing. It was something for us.

00:59:34

- It made a difference in our heart and soul.

00:59:37

- It did. And I was always thinking about

00:59:39

that commitment and our commitment to God

00:59:42

and to the church.

00:59:44

You know, either I can do this or I can do this

00:59:46

or I cannot do that, but it's for the Kingdom.

00:59:49

That lens was on everything I bought.

00:59:52

- And it was focusing. - It did.

00:59:53

- I'll tell you what, I don't know that

00:59:55

I've ever had as rich a prayer life as I had had.

00:59:57

Five years into Crossroads, you know, being Crossroads.

01:00:02

And we had grown so much by then,

01:00:05

we had already seen more people

01:00:08

than we could have imagined showing up.

01:00:10

People were coming to Christ, marriages were being saved.

01:00:14

- It was exciting. And it was God was here.

01:00:17

- It was obvious that big things were happening.

01:00:20

So, but we were crammed into a rented space

01:00:25

and we were just growing out of it.

01:00:26

And it was obvious that with this big space,

01:00:30

we'd have had great room to grow.

01:00:32

I don't think either one of us imagined

01:00:34

we'd grow to where we are today. - No.

01:00:38

- But you know God's presence in our lives,

01:00:40

He's shown up for us.

01:00:42

Our business is thriving.

01:00:44

Our kids are thriving.

01:00:46

You know, we've had some health issues that,

01:00:49

you know, we've come through,

01:00:51

His faithfulness to us and H

01:00:53

is faithfulness to Crossroads

01:00:54

and the people who show up here.

01:00:56

Yeah, yeah, it was a good investment.

01:01:00

- And that's not the only one you made.

01:01:02

We've had four campaigns in the life of our church,

01:01:05

and in each one we're seven figure commitments.

01:01:07

- Yeah. - Why do you keep giving?

01:01:10

What has God done in you and through you because of that?

01:01:12

- These campaigns have been some of the times

01:01:15

that I have felt the closest to God.

01:01:17

Each one we're like,

01:01:18

"Oh, we're not going to participate in this one."

01:01:23

- We've done our thing.

01:01:24

- Yeah, we've done our thing.

01:01:26

And and God just, I don't know,

01:01:28

He gets our hearts and says,

01:01:31

"No, you're not. You're not done."

01:01:33

- Well we've had the,

01:01:35

"Perhaps we ought to sit this one out" conversation.

01:01:38

- We've already had that.

01:01:39

- And I just bought a big chunk of our family business,

01:01:43

and so I have a bunch of debt there,

01:01:45

but I can already tell we're starting to be moved.

01:01:49

- We never know until the end.

01:01:51

I mean, it's not, it's not like it's a --

01:01:53

Sometimes it's the very, at the very end.

01:01:56

We're in the process and the process is amazing.

01:01:59

- One of the things that I'm trying hard to do

01:02:02

is be true to Him and, you know.

01:02:05

- I want to be part of the Kingdom.

01:02:06

I want to be in, I mean, He's doing amazing things.

01:02:09

I want to be part of it. - Yeah.

01:02:10

- And just sit it out, you miss something.

01:02:12

That's how I always start on these, I say, "Nah,"

01:02:14

and then here we are. You know?

01:02:17

- Perhaps the biggest legacy we have is

01:02:19

our involvement in Crossroads.

01:02:23

And honestly, I mean, there's our business,

01:02:26

and that'll be a nice legacy.

01:02:28

I mean, our business is making

01:02:29

a real difference in people's lives,

01:02:31

and we're thrilled about that.

01:02:33

But it doesn't feel like it could possibly make

01:02:36

the difference in people's lives that Crossroads is.

01:02:39

God did amazing things in people's lives,

01:02:42

and He's, you know, 28 years later or so,

01:02:45

He's still doing it, and He's done that in us.

01:02:49

- And being pushed sounds awful,

01:02:52

but being pushed is -- It's kind of exhilarating,

01:02:55

you know, if you allow yourself to be.

01:02:58

You know, especially in these times right now,

01:03:00

God can handle all these problems

01:03:02

and He's calling our name.

01:03:06

He's like, "Come on." He's the answer.

01:03:09

- Yeah, and having the opportunity

01:03:11

to play a part is a real blessing.

01:03:13

- That's really -- it's, yeah.

01:03:18

- Yeah. It's great.

01:03:21

They're an equal part of our church,

01:03:24

as is the minimum wage worker who tithes on tips.

01:03:28

We all, we all are in this thing.

01:03:31

Psalm one 15:13 says:

01:03:38

Smallest to the greatest.

01:03:42

He is looking for our hearts.

01:03:44

He's not looking specifically for a dollar amount.

01:03:47

He's looking for a heart.

01:03:49

What kind of a heart?

01:03:50

A heart that's like His Son's.

01:03:51

What was His Son like? He had a heart for sacrifice.

01:03:57

Last week I had an unusual interaction with a person.

01:04:01

People who go to our church.

01:04:02

I'd never heard of them before.

01:04:03

Never talked with them before.

01:04:05

They saw the stuff we talked about last week

01:04:08

with the 220,000 square foot communal campus

01:04:13

for girls we rescued out of sex slavery

01:04:15

over in Nepal. They were really moved.

01:04:17

And they saw a $3 million price tag and said,

01:04:19

"Let's just got to go in immediately, immediately."

01:04:21

And they said, "Could we put up -- how about

01:04:24

we put a $1.5 million thing up, a matching grant

01:04:29

and then you can match that with the other $1.5 million."

01:04:32

Incredibly generous, incredibly kind.

01:04:33

Again, last time we did a campaign

01:04:36

we had one seven figure commitment. One.

01:04:39

So this is not usual. It's not every day this happens.

01:04:42

So we thought, "Jeez, hey, this is --

01:04:44

Woo, we might need to do this. Okay."

01:04:46

So we had some internal thinking about it,

01:04:48

and maybe we just go to some people internally

01:04:51

we know have some money and know some of those people,

01:04:53

they don't tithe and I'll just go to them

01:04:56

and like, treat them as a fundraiser,

01:04:58

just try to fundraise some money from them."

01:05:00

We started thinking about all this stuff and,

01:05:02

where we ended was, "No, no, that's just not us.

01:05:06

These people's hearts are in the right place."

01:05:09

And other nonprofits do this, and it's fine for them,

01:05:13

but it just felt too gimmicky for us.

01:05:15

It felt too NPR for us.

01:05:17

And then what is it, then like,

01:05:19

only if you can get asked to do the matching fund,

01:05:22

do you feel like you got to do

01:05:24

the communal campus for those girls?

01:05:28

No. We all get that from the smallest to the greatest.

01:05:31

All of us get all of these things.

01:05:34

All of us are equally valuable in our community,

01:05:37

equal value to God.

01:05:39

And I explained that to that couple and they said,

01:05:42

"Yeah, that's fine. That makes sense.

01:05:44

That makes sense." I think they're still,

01:05:46

are still committing that, which is great.

01:05:47

I said, "Do you mind if I tell your story anonymously?"

01:05:50

"Yes. Yeah. Great. That's fine."

01:05:52

That's not their whole story, but I love their heart

01:05:55

and I also love the --

01:05:57

We need to protect the heart of this church,

01:05:59

that this is a we thing, not just a person

01:06:03

who can do things that many of us can't do.

01:06:06

All of us are equal before God.

01:06:12

God's testing us right now.

01:06:13

I don't know if you know that. It's a test.

01:06:15

That was -- that conversation was a test for me.

01:06:18

Test, like, do you want to just do, like,

01:06:19

a growing nonprofit and do nonprofit plays

01:06:23

that they do, or do you have a different thing

01:06:25

you want me to do through this church?

01:06:28

It was a test, I think.

01:06:29

It is a test right here for you right now.

01:06:34

A few weeks ago, I talked about

01:06:36

arguably the most central story in the Bible,

01:06:39

at least the oldest central story in the Bible,

01:06:41

the story of Abraham and Isaac.

01:06:43

I can't give you all the details right now,

01:06:45

but just to catch up real quickly.

01:06:47

Promises for Abraham to have

01:06:49

a great nation outnumber the stars.

01:06:51

They don't have a child.

01:06:52

They finally have a child. His name is Isaac.

01:06:54

God starts to think you love this child

01:06:56

more than you actually love me

01:06:57

and the vision I've given you.

01:06:58

You actually may even love the vision

01:07:00

I've given you more than you love me.

01:07:03

You need to kill that child.

01:07:05

Abraham takes him up on the on the mountain,

01:07:07

goes to the very top of the mountain.

01:07:09

And I know there's troubling things in here.

01:07:10

I unpacked these much, much more before.

01:07:12

So if you want a deep dive, go back

01:07:13

and look at that from a couple weeks ago.

01:07:15

Goes up and right when he raises his knife

01:07:18

right when he raises his knife

01:07:20

to kill Isaac on the altar, this is where

01:07:24

I want to dig in a little bit more.

01:07:26

Genesis chapter 22, and it says this.

01:07:32

He said -- Actually it says this.

01:07:35

He said, "Abraham, Abraham."

01:07:37

And he says, "Here I am, here I am, Abraham says.

01:07:40

He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy

01:07:42

or do anything to him, for now I know

01:07:45

that you fear God, seeing you have

01:07:48

not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

01:07:52

He calls him out just to see if he's paying attention.

01:07:55

"Abraham. Abraham." And he hears --

01:07:59

We got a Abraham in here? There's Abraham, all right.

01:08:01

He still does this today. He calls out today.

01:08:04

Jill. Jill. yeah, there. John. John.

01:08:11

No, Johns in here. Are you -- seriously?

01:08:14

There's no Johns in here, or actually, no Johns

01:08:17

who actually want to pass the test today?

01:08:18

We want another name. Sharon. Sharon. There she is.

01:08:22

Uh. Latasha. Latasha. There it is. Right.

01:08:27

Just imagine God's calling your name

01:08:29

and going, "Here I am, here I am,

01:08:31

I'm here, I'm here. Put me in. I'm here, I'm here."

01:08:34

God's calling your name right now.

01:08:37

And he says to Abraham, "Don't do it, I saw you.

01:08:41

I saw you. No, don't do it! Don't do it!

01:08:43

Don't do it. Don't do it."

01:08:44

And here's what God says that's so weighty

01:08:46

and so freaky to me.

01:08:47

Let's just take God at His word and just

01:08:50

let's believe the Bible for a minute

01:08:52

word for word for a moment. Just for a moment.

01:08:54

Again, sometimes we we have other beliefs

01:08:56

that are maybe in the Bible and we try to glob them on

01:08:59

and we drain the rich meaning out of the story.

01:09:02

He says, "Now I know that you fear God,"

01:09:10

as if God says, "I didn't know before."

01:09:13

And we'll say, "Well, God --

01:09:14

Doesn't God know all things?"

01:09:17

You can have that theological debate another time.

01:09:19

Let's just look at this verse, what He says,

01:09:21

"Now I know."

01:09:23

How does God know something?

01:09:24

I'll hear people say, "Well, God knows my heart."

01:09:26

How does God know your heart?

01:09:28

He knows your heart by what you do,

01:09:30

that's how He knows your heart.

01:09:31

He doesn't look at your heart and go,

01:09:32

"Oh, you have a nice, oh, I just like your heart. Oh."

01:09:35

He knows your heart by what you and I do.

01:09:41

And what you and I do are tests that we pass

01:09:45

and things that qualify us for

01:09:49

the next assignment that God has for us.

01:09:51

And when we don't pass certain tests,

01:09:53

we don't get more assignments

01:09:56

and more opportunities and even more blessings.

01:09:58

It's just a basic Bible thing.

01:09:59

I'm not going to give you, like,

01:10:01

all the 100 examples of this, but this is a test.

01:10:04

For a lot of us today, this is a test.

01:10:05

First of all, you already started passing the test,

01:10:07

you came in today, you didn't stay home.

01:10:09

That's awesome. That's awesome.

01:10:11

And now, and now you get to see

01:10:17

whether or not God has your heart.

01:10:19

God gets to see whether or not He has your heart.

01:10:21

And the way he sees that is sacrifice.

01:10:25

It's always tough for Lib and I to figure out

01:10:28

what our number is, always is.

01:10:31

Life situations are different every year.

01:10:33

They're always unusual and,

01:10:37

but we have to take where we are right now

01:10:39

and go, "Okay, what does that mean right now?"

01:10:41

We have to sacrifice.

01:10:43

Our sacrifice is there's things

01:10:44

that we're not going to be able to do

01:10:46

we would have done before.

01:10:48

There's, I've already canceled two of those things.

01:10:52

There's things that we could feel more secure about,

01:10:56

we're not going to feel as secure as we did before.

01:10:59

I'm sure there's people in here

01:11:02

who are going to make larger sacrifices

01:11:05

in terms of what may mean to your life.

01:11:07

I know that, but I'll tell you, I'm just committed.

01:11:09

We're still sacrificing.

01:11:10

This is the largest amount that we've given

01:11:14

or paid for anything, other than our current house.

01:11:19

Because for where we are right now,

01:11:21

that's the amount that it would take

01:11:22

for it to be a sacrifice for us.

01:11:25

And God's looking to see if there's a group

01:11:27

of people who have that, His kind of heart,

01:11:30

the heart of Abraham for sacrifice,

01:11:32

the heart of Jesus for sacrifice,

01:11:35

the heart of David for sacrifice.

01:11:38

Maybe the reason we're not seeing an awakening

01:11:40

is there hasn't been a group of people

01:11:42

who've been willing to sacrifice before, until now.

01:11:45

Friends, that's us. Come on.

01:11:48

It's who we are. It's what we've done.

01:11:50

Whether you're a long timer or a first timer,

01:11:52

join the party. Let's go.

01:11:54

Let's make this happen. All right.

01:11:55

Right now, in your seats you have this.

01:12:00

Do not look at the bottom box.

01:12:02

Don't look at that intimidating bottom box.

01:12:04

Don't, don't, don't look at there.

01:12:05

Don't look there.

01:12:06

Let's just do some logistical things, okay?

01:12:09

Let's do the easy stuff, like fill out your name.

01:12:12

Just put your name.

01:12:14

And I'm doing this so we can read it

01:12:16

because we're going to come onto all of our stages

01:12:20

putting up, put cards in

01:12:22

and people are going to count them.

01:12:23

They're also going to compare them to

01:12:25

if you gave a card before at a leadership event,

01:12:27

we're going to compare and contrast

01:12:29

and figure out what the right number is

01:12:30

and all that stuff. So we need to read it.

01:12:32

So first name, that's Brian.

01:12:34

Last name, Tome.

01:12:38

Email address. Put that in there.

01:12:40

Try to be neat.

01:12:41

If you're married, give it to the person

01:12:43

who has need or handwriting.

01:12:45

You know who you are.

01:12:47

Street address.

01:12:58

City, state.

01:13:04

Phone number. You know us.

01:13:06

This isn't for some marketing purposes.

01:13:08

It's just if we're confused about something

01:13:10

you said or whatever, we just want to be able

01:13:12

to get in touch with you. You can trust us.

01:13:14

And your spouse's name and all of that info there.

01:13:17

The spouse email address.

01:13:21

Lib's not here where I am at this campus today.

01:13:24

She's at another campus, our normal home campus,

01:13:28

or else we would be coming up together

01:13:30

and filling this out.

01:13:31

We're actually going beyond

01:13:32

what we thought we were going to do.

01:13:34

So we're going to be filling out a new card

01:13:36

and putting it in.

01:13:37

In a moment, we're going to come and on front,

01:13:41

on top of all of our stages

01:13:43

in most of our places, the highest place,

01:13:45

the highest place.

01:13:49

And we're going to give a sacrifice, a commitment.

01:13:53

What you're going to put is

01:13:55

you're going to put in the bottom.

01:13:56

Don't do it yet. Don't do it yet.

01:13:57

The bottom, whatever it is that you want to commit,

01:14:02

that you want to consecrate yourself for

01:14:04

above and beyond your regular gift.

01:14:06

Thank you for your regular giving.

01:14:08

It's wonderful. Thank you.

01:14:09

And if you can't go beyond that, fine.

01:14:12

Just if you want to look like,

01:14:13

if you don't want to feel embarrassed,

01:14:15

put a dollar on there or something like that.

01:14:16

The regular giving is really good, really important.

01:14:19

This is a different sacrifice,

01:14:21

and you'll put that total number for whatever

01:14:23

it's going to be over three years,

01:14:24

however, you're going to do it over three years.

01:14:28

Now before we do that, let's just pray.

01:14:31

And if you got a spouse, you can talk

01:14:34

and see if anything happened here

01:14:36

that God might have hit you with.

01:14:37

And let's just have a moment of just peace here

01:14:39

before we do this, all right?

01:14:41

I'm going to pray and then at the end of which

01:14:43

we're going to go to all of our sites

01:14:45

for logistics in your room.

01:14:49

Lord, we're -- we're nervous.

01:14:56

We're excited.

01:15:00

We're queasy.

01:15:03

We're thankful.

01:15:07

We're worshipful. All those things.

01:15:14

Lord, we just want to pass the test you have for us.

01:15:16

Whatever it is, we want to be your yes people.

01:15:22

God, if there's something You want from us,

01:15:27

if You want to nudge us right now, we'll take that.

01:15:32

If not, we want You to hear from us,

01:15:36

we want You to hear how much we care for You

01:15:41

and the vision for Your Kingdom.

01:15:44

- Man, thank you so much for being with us

01:15:46

on what is a really, really special day.

01:15:48

So if you've been watching

01:15:49

and you're ready to make a commitment,

01:15:51

depending on what platform you're watching on,

01:15:53

there's either a QR code on your screen

01:15:55

that you can just scan, or a commit button

01:15:57

directly below this video that you can press.

01:16:00

And as you see behind me and around me,

01:16:03

there are people that are lining up, like,

01:16:05

lining up to give their commitment.

01:16:06

I just want to be really clear, really clear.

01:16:09

This is a we thing, not a they thing

01:16:12

or a Crossroads thing.

01:16:13

This is something that we are leaning into

01:16:16

as a community, something that we want to see

01:16:20

God show up in new ways and in powerful ways,

01:16:23

and trust that it's not just about

01:16:25

God accomplishing huge, huge things

01:16:27

through our corporate expression of the church,

01:16:30

but that God wants to do huge things in our lives.

01:16:33

The mission here isn't just impact,

01:16:37

but it is heart change.

01:16:39

It's trusting God in a fresh way

01:16:41

and seeing Him show up.

01:16:43

So we want to see that happen for you,

01:16:46

no matter where you are.

01:16:49

Aall across the globe we've had stories just pour in,

01:16:52

pour in from all over the place

01:16:53

that just highlight this, that highlight this.

01:16:55

Actually, I'm going to read one,

01:16:57

but I'm going to change something right here for you.

01:16:59

There you go.

01:17:01

Okay, so here's a story that just came in

01:17:03

from somebody in Kentucky.

01:17:05

Since I started attending Crossroads

01:17:07

and building my relationship with Christ,

01:17:09

my life and those around me have changed for the good.

01:17:12

I pray that Crossroads continues to reach more

01:17:14

and more people, leading to this earth

01:17:16

looking more like heaven.

01:17:17

Together with this Push,

01:17:18

I believe there can be an awakening.

01:17:21

I love that story. So, so good. That's the whole goal.

01:17:24

That's the whole goal that heaven would come to earth.

01:17:27

And Brian a number of weeks ago

01:17:29

had this amazing line that was,

01:17:31

why are we surprised with, like, a SpaceX launch

01:17:33

or something like that, that it's expensive

01:17:36

to take Earth to heaven with a rocket launch?

01:17:38

We shouldn't be surprised that it's also expensive

01:17:41

to bring heaven to earth,

01:17:43

that it requires an investment.

01:17:44

It requires a step forward of faith.

01:17:47

Another story that just came in says this:

01:17:50

I'm in my third year of college.

01:17:52

Three years from now, I'll be graduated

01:17:54

and onto my first job.

01:17:55

I'm confident that that God

01:17:57

has good things in store for me.

01:17:58

I'm sacrificing my quote unquote wiggle room

01:18:01

for a safety net as a college student,

01:18:03

trusting that God will make more room

01:18:05

than I could ever imagine.

01:18:07

God, I love you and I give you my 100%.

01:18:10

Man, that's so cool.

01:18:12

There's all kinds of different people

01:18:14

in every different life stage

01:18:16

at all our different sites and online that

01:18:19

right now are making that same commitment,

01:18:21

saying in one way or another, "God,

01:18:23

I give you what I have. I trust you with my 100%."

01:18:27

And it's not just a trust,

01:18:29

it isn't a financial thing, right?

01:18:31

Because money isn't just money.

01:18:32

It's also a statement of trust,

01:18:34

a statement of faith,

01:18:35

a statement that God has us, right?

01:18:37

So we're trusting that God has us,

01:18:41

that He's looking out for us and that He's with us.

01:18:45

Now, I want you to just check out, man,

01:18:46

some of the great, great, great stuff

01:18:48

going on in our church.

01:19:43

- So as people continue to line up at our sites

01:19:46

and for you guys online,

01:19:48

stories are just continuing to come in.

01:19:49

And I think there's something really, really cool.

01:19:52

On these commitment cards that the side

01:19:53

might have personal information

01:19:55

and a number of a commitment amount,

01:19:57

that the other side is representative

01:20:00

of the story that led that person to this moment,

01:20:02

about how they've seen God show up,

01:20:04

or about how they're expecting to see God show up.

01:20:07

So one of the stories that just came in that

01:20:09

I just want to share with you guys

01:20:10

goes like this from Oklahoma.

01:20:12

I have committed and I'm all in.

01:20:15

Heavenly father, please continue guiding

01:20:17

my thoughts in life towards You.

01:20:18

Please continue to bless Crossroads,

01:20:20

the pastors and all the people it requires

01:20:21

to make it run and grow.

01:20:23

Please continue to help us keep our commitments

01:20:25

to glorify Your Kingdom, Your Kingdom.

01:20:28

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.

01:20:30

May your day be blessed, Father, I love you.

01:20:32

In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.

01:20:34

I just want to call something out on that.

01:20:36

I love that the focus is on what God wants.

01:20:38

This is not about what Crossroads is doing.

01:20:40

This is about what God is doing through His people,

01:20:42

some of which happen to be at Crossroads.

01:20:45

Another story that just came in

01:20:46

I'll share with you guys says this:

01:20:48

We've been faithful tithers for many years

01:20:51

and have gone above the tithe for many years as well.

01:20:53

We joyfully give to God's Kingdom here on earth.

01:20:56

We'll be retired in years 2 to 3 of this commitment.

01:20:59

We don't know what our income will look like,

01:21:01

but we trust God in this new stage of life.

01:21:04

We've entrusted resources to Crossroads

01:21:06

for a long time now, and have seen

01:21:08

how God has used those resources

01:21:09

for the furthering of His Kingdom.

01:21:11

Thank you for the opportunity to give

01:21:13

and watch God work.

01:21:15

Man, that is a theme that I just keep hearing

01:21:17

as I talk to people, in my own life that, like,

01:21:20

the financial situation of this year

01:21:22

is going to look different from the next 2 or 3.

01:21:25

And as this person goes on to say, they say:

01:21:28

Ever since we've started putting

01:21:30

God first in our lives, He's shown out,

01:21:32

He's showed out for us in many ways,

01:21:34

and now we want to give back to Him.

01:21:36

Man, again, states that we've seen stories come in

01:21:39

so far: Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas,

01:21:41

Illinois, Arizona, Minnesota, Florida, Maryland,

01:21:44

California, Kansas, Oregon, Oklahoma.

01:21:47

It's so good, guys. It's so good.

01:21:49

Thank you for joining us wherever on the globe you are.

01:21:53

This is a way that we're saying yes to what God has.

01:21:58

So we say it,

01:22:00

Crossroads isn't content, it's a community.

01:22:02

We're not just a thing to watch.

01:22:04

We're a community that you can belong to.

01:22:06

We're a church that you can fully belong to

01:22:08

no matter where you live.

01:22:09

And like this song says, we're saying yes

01:22:12

to whatever God has for us.

01:22:14

We're saying yes to sacrifice.

01:22:16

Saying yes to trust, yes to God entrusting us

01:22:19

with more faithfulness, with more resources,

01:22:22

with more opportunity to make an impact

01:22:24

because that's who He is and how He wants

01:22:26

to bring us into what He's doing in His world.

01:22:29

All right, I want to get you guys back

01:22:32

into some of the worship that's going on

01:22:33

and these words right now.

01:23:22

- Man, this is such a big deal. It's such a big deal.

01:23:25

It's humbling. It's nerve wracking. It's so good.

01:23:29

So I just got to make a commitment with my wife.

01:23:31

And your roller coaster analogy is perfect.

01:23:34

- Yeah. - Yeah.

01:23:36

So excited to see what God does.

01:23:37

And actually, we've got some cool stories

01:23:39

of people within our Anywhere Community

01:23:41

who have seen God show up

01:23:42

and who are expecting Him to show up in cool ways.

01:23:44

You want to read some of these?

01:23:45

- Yeah, yeah. This one comes in. This is a college student says:

01:23:47

Since I've started college here in Cincinnati,

01:23:49

I felt like money has a hold on my life.

01:23:51

I want this to be a commitment in my heart

01:23:53

to God and His plan for me.

01:23:55

That, I'll just tell you, whoever that is,

01:23:58

that you submitted that story,

01:23:59

you are starting at the perfect time.

01:24:01

- Yeah. Amazing.

01:24:03

- When you start in college, you commit now,

01:24:06

you're going to have a life where it becomes

01:24:08

so much easier to lean into God

01:24:10

and lean into faith and allow Him to stretch you.

01:24:13

So way to go. Well done. Love that.

01:24:15

- That's right.

01:24:17

Somebody else wrote this, it's really, really strong.

01:24:19

Our family, and I love this.

01:24:21

Our family is looking forward to see

01:24:23

what God is going to do at Crossroads,

01:24:25

and are excited that we get to play a part

01:24:27

in advancing the Kingdom of God.

01:24:28

So good. This isn't an adult thing

01:24:30

or a they thing or a staff thing.

01:24:32

This is a we thing and that includes your kids,

01:24:34

no matter how old or young they are.

01:24:37

- That's right. - We're on a mission together.

01:24:39

That's really, really good stuff.

01:24:41

- That's right. And parents,

01:24:42

I mentioned this earlier in case you missed it.

01:24:44

Tell your kids what you're giving for,

01:24:48

what the sacrifice is for.

01:24:49

Walk them through the territories

01:24:51

and tell them about your heart.

01:24:53

Tell them about what you're saying to God.

01:24:55

You're going to create a legacy in your family

01:24:58

of generosity and people who are focused on Him.

01:25:01

I'll say, as a dad, there's nothing I want more

01:25:04

than for my kids to follow God in power

01:25:07

and in faith, and to mirror His heart of generosity.

01:25:09

So take advantage of it.

01:25:11

And if you, by the way, if that's like,

01:25:12

"I don't know how to walk them through all the initiatives."

01:25:15

Crossroads.net/10X, scroll down

01:25:18

and you can watch the mission briefing

01:25:19

that Andy and I were a part of from my workshop,

01:25:22

if that helps you out.

01:25:23

- Yeah, absolutely. And it's like a tactile way

01:25:26

for you and for your whole family to just remember,

01:25:30

I'd encourage you to get one of these,

01:25:32

set it on your desk.

01:25:33

If you already got, if we already shipped you

01:25:35

your guide somewhere across the country,

01:25:37

this is in your week six envelope.

01:25:39

You can go ahead and open that.

01:25:40

If you didn't get one of those,

01:25:41

hey, when you make a commitment,

01:25:43

we will get your information

01:25:44

automatically send you one of these.

01:25:45

You don't have to do anything.

01:25:47

But then take this, set it on your desk,

01:25:49

set it somewhere where you will see it.

01:25:51

Set it somewhere where your family will see it,

01:25:53

and they can be reminded that

01:25:55

you're not just giving money mindlessly,

01:25:58

but you are intentionally sacrificing,

01:26:00

putting what God wants in front of what you want.

01:26:03

I want my kids to know why Disney+

01:26:06

is going away for a while. You know?

01:26:08

Like, I want them to understand

01:26:09

why our family sacrifices, because

01:26:11

there's big things that God wants to do in us

01:26:13

and that God wants to do through us.

01:26:15

- Yeah. That's right.

01:26:16

Well, hey, thanks for joining us today.

01:26:18

Thanks for being part of this movement.

01:26:20

We're hoping and we're praying for you,

01:26:22

for your family, that the 10X life

01:26:24

that you hoped for as we started this Journey,

01:26:27

it started in personal revival.

01:26:28

God, would you revive me?

01:26:30

Would I sense You ten times more?

01:26:31

That you would feel that,

01:26:32

that you would experience that.

01:26:34

I'm going to pray for you as we end our time.

01:26:36

God, thank You for everyone watching.

01:26:37

Thank You for everyone who engaged.

01:26:39

I'm asking for Your blessing on all of us,

01:26:41

on our church, and that You would have Your way,

01:26:44

that You would become more famous,

01:26:46

that more people would know You

01:26:48

through this sacrifice. Amen.

01:26:51

All right. Next time we see you,

01:26:53

it's celebration weekend.

01:26:54

See you. See you then. - Bye.

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