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00:00:07
- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.
I'm Andy.
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00:00:09
- And I'm Hannah.
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00:00:10
- Hey. And we are so glad
that you're joining us today.
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00:00:12
Now,
Crossroads is a church of people
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00:00:14
meeting all over the world,
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00:00:15
in coffee shops, bars,
dorm rooms, homes,
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00:00:18
buildings just like this one
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00:00:20
and so, so, so much more.
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00:00:22
Hey, special call out
to my friends in Florida.
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00:00:25
We got some staff
coming to hang out
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00:00:26
with you guys just
over the weekend.
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00:00:29
Can't wait to be with you.
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00:00:30
- It is week five of The Push.
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00:00:32
If it's your first time
joining us in a while,
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00:00:34
we've been in this thing
called the 10X Push,
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00:00:35
and if you've been here,
you know that
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00:00:37
we are learning and
growing in our faith,
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00:00:40
being pushed and
challenged into what God
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00:00:42
might have for us
over the next ten years.
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00:00:45
And I'll tell you what,
I've not just been pushed
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00:00:47
and challenged to
think about surrender
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00:00:48
or to think about what
I'm putting on the table.
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00:00:51
I've also been encouraged,
you know?
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00:00:53
I'm encouraged to think that
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00:00:54
God wants to partner with me,
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00:00:56
little old me
and little old you,
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00:00:58
to change the literal world
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00:01:01
and the community around us
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00:01:02
and our families
and our generations.
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00:01:04
And that's exciting stuff.
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00:01:05
- That's right.
I know, for me at least, like,
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00:01:08
I am not at my best
when I'm just comfortable
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00:01:11
and cozy and bingeing Netflix.
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00:01:13
Like, there's something
good that happens
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00:01:15
when I'm pushed,
when I'm stretched.
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00:01:17
And that is what's
been happening,
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00:01:19
not just for us,
like a community,
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00:01:21
like big scale thing,
but like for me,
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00:01:24
not just like here, but here
-
00:01:25
God's been pushing
us and challenge us
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00:01:27
to go to a new places.
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00:01:29
It's been really, really good.
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00:01:30
- Speaking of new places,
we have a story
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00:01:32
of a couple who decided
to go to a new place,
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00:01:35
and it really
changed the trajectory
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00:01:38
of their entire life.
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00:01:39
This is Judd and Dani's story.
Catch it right now.
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00:01:43
- For the first ten
years of our marriage
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00:01:45
we were looking for --
We were church hopping.
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00:01:47
I'd grown up in the church,
Young Life,
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00:01:49
the whole thing,
and so I was like,
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00:01:50
"We got to get into this."
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00:01:52
And so we visited, oh,
my gosh, so many churches.
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00:01:55
And Judd really reacted
negatively to church. Yeah.
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00:01:59
- I had a lot of objections.
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00:02:00
So church wasn't a part
of my childhood at all.
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00:02:03
Childhood Judd was,
I don't know,
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00:02:06
there's like drugs,
violence, sex,
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00:02:09
just nothing in any
way godly or holy at all.
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00:02:13
And so I'd go to church
every now and then
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00:02:16
at Christmas with my
grandmother, who was amazing,
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00:02:18
but I didn't really
know who God was
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00:02:20
and what faith was all about.
-
00:02:21
I just had this --
There was some sort of
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00:02:23
a connection in
there rattling around
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00:02:24
inside of me that I
couldn't really define.
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00:02:26
- We were living up in Lebanon,
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00:02:28
we moved to Hyde Park,
and my sister
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00:02:30
was like trying to get us
to come to Crossroads.
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00:02:32
Judd's like, "Well,
what are you going to tell her?
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00:02:34
Because this place is weird."
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00:02:36
I was like,
"We'll go this one time,
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00:02:37
and then after
that I'll just be like,
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00:02:39
'Hey, you know what?
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00:02:40
This really isn't
the church for us.
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00:02:41
We're going to keep looking, '
and just politely exit out."
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00:02:44
And we went to that service
-
00:02:46
and I don't remember
what was said,
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00:02:48
but both of us left
there and we were like,
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00:02:51
"Was that speaking
directly to you?"
-
00:02:52
I was like, "Yeah.
Was speaking directly to you?"
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00:02:54
He was like, "Yeah."
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00:02:55
I'm like, "Oh,
we're coming back."
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00:02:56
He's like, "Yeah,
we're definitely coming back."
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00:02:58
- It doesn't really
feel like anybody's
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00:03:00
really worried about
who else is there.
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00:03:01
Everybody's just kind of it felt
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00:03:03
like authentic
community in the room.
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00:03:04
And so we come in 2006
and then Dani signs us up
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00:03:08
for a Journey group,
and then we sign up --
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00:03:10
Then and then after
the Journey group,
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00:03:11
we decide we should
do a small group.
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00:03:13
Then we started
volunteering at Go Cincinnati
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00:03:15
at the time,
Thanksgiving Food Drive.
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00:03:17
And so it wasn't just Sunday.
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00:03:19
Sunday continued to be great,
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00:03:20
but it was this
holistic part of my life.
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00:03:22
And then of course, like, if you
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00:03:24
just do the progression,
"Oh yeah,
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00:03:26
now it's time for a Go Trip."
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00:03:27
My company at the
time was in the tank,
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00:03:29
so I had plenty of free time.
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00:03:30
- It was right around the time
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00:03:32
when the housing market crashed.
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00:03:34
It was a really rough time.
Yeah.
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00:03:36
- But we decided to
go to New Orleans.
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00:03:38
- Yeah. So we go on this trip.
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00:03:41
Friendships develop
out of our Go groups.
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00:03:43
- I got baptized.
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00:03:45
- Yeah, I feel like it
was kind of a whirlwind.
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00:03:47
Like, it was almost
like everything lit on fire
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00:03:50
and we were running
and running fast
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00:03:52
and running hard
toward Kingdom things.
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00:03:54
- One of the guys I met
on the New Orleans trip,
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00:03:56
he was unemployed at the time.
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00:03:57
I'm employed but
not taking a paycheck.
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00:04:00
And so somehow money
came up and somehow he's like,
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00:04:02
"Hey, man,
I'm just going to tell you,
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00:04:04
the only thing the whole Bible
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00:04:05
God tells you to test
Him on is giving. That's it."
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00:04:09
I don't know what gave
or I don't know what it was
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00:04:12
that his --made
him so convincing.
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00:04:14
But I was like, "You know what?
Great.
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00:04:16
I'm going to do that."
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00:04:17
Again, not taking a paycheck,
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00:04:18
but I thought, okay.
- It was tight.
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00:04:21
It was tight,
and interestingly enough,
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00:04:25
there became a
certain point where
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00:04:26
I remember going, "I don't
even notice that it's gone."
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00:04:29
It felt more like a just
sort of fell into our rhythm.
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00:04:33
And it was also right
before Game Change.
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00:04:37
Do you remember that?
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00:04:39
Game Change was the
very first time we were
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00:04:41
ever asked to give above
and beyond our normal giving.
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00:04:44
And I remember when
they started talking
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00:04:46
about the different things
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00:04:48
that Game Change
was going to support.
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00:04:51
And I remember thinking,
"Oh my gosh, God's on the move."
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00:04:55
- It was super
exciting to watch,
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00:04:57
to sit in a room
full of people that
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00:04:59
were all getting
calibrated towards
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00:05:00
these big, giant things
that are going to try to do.
-
00:05:03
And like, man,
does that feel cool?
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00:05:05
Like, yeah, sure,
you can go volunteer here.
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00:05:06
You can do that.
It's all great stuff.
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00:05:08
But wow,
we're all going to team together
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00:05:10
and go do a thing?
- Yeah.
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00:05:11
- That was very cool.
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00:05:12
- We came up with
our number to give
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00:05:15
and it felt like
absolutely impossible.
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00:05:18
There was no way we
were going to actually ever.
-
00:05:20
Because again,
we were still in this place
-
00:05:22
where we didn't
really have any money.
-
00:05:24
We were like, "All right,
well, God's moving.
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00:05:26
We went on this train.
Let's go."
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00:05:29
- It felt challenging
and exciting
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00:05:31
and we both felt
a peace about it.
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00:05:33
- Yeah. And we also
just kind of felt like
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00:05:36
if God's leading us this
in giving us this number,
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00:05:39
we're trusting His story
and what He's doing.
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00:05:42
And that trust is going
to carry us through.
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00:05:44
And we'll figure it out."
You know?
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00:05:46
During Game Change,
we were able to experience
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00:05:50
God in a completely
different way
-
00:05:52
because in that experience,
He showed up.
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00:05:55
He showed up with jobs,
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00:05:56
He showed up with friendships,
-
00:05:58
He showed up with
all kinds of things.
-
00:06:00
- So as we kind
of cruise in towards
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00:06:03
the third one of these
that we've experienced
-
00:06:05
and there's been more in those,
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00:06:06
um, it's really interesting
how I'm struggling
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00:06:10
with what generosity looks
like for The Push personally.
-
00:06:14
And then I start
thinking about Man Camp
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00:06:16
and camps specifically.
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00:06:18
I've said again
and again and again
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00:06:19
I've watched it happen,
God has consistently
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00:06:22
shown me how
small my dreams are.
-
00:06:23
Like, I think,
"Man, it'd be great
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00:06:25
if this many guys showed up
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00:06:26
and this sort of a
thing happened."
-
00:06:27
And that sort of it's
that you look back at
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00:06:29
what you thought would be great
-
00:06:30
and you're like,
"That's stupidly small."
-
00:06:32
But I thought it
was great at the time
-
00:06:34
because I didn't know
any better, you know?
-
00:06:35
So I'm excited about it just for
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00:06:37
what it's going to be for us,
-
00:06:39
what it's going to be for me,
selfishly,
-
00:06:40
what it could mean to Camps,
-
00:06:42
what it can mean to
Crossroads in general.
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00:06:44
And when I think about
the thousands of people
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00:06:46
that weren't at
Crossroads at the last one
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00:06:48
that are now at Crossroads,
and I think,
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00:06:50
"You don't even know.
I'm sure you're like,
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00:06:52
'Ah, what is it?'
Yeah, but you don't even know
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00:06:54
the good stuff that's out there.
You know?"
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00:06:55
You can't know it.
How could you know it
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00:06:57
if you've never lived it at all?
It's not just camp stuff.
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00:06:59
I mean, again,
we get to come together
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00:07:02
as a collective group
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00:07:04
and put our meager
resources collectively.
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00:07:08
It's way more than any
one of us could ever do,
-
00:07:10
and we get to all
be a part of that
-
00:07:12
and see the fruit of
that and experience
-
00:07:13
what that feels
like inside and go,
-
00:07:15
"Man, I made a commitment
to maybe a little nervous."
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00:07:17
I'm a big fan of stuff that
makes you a little nervous.
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00:07:19
Okay, there's one story that --
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00:07:21
I'm trying not to tear
up while I tell this.
-
00:07:22
If you've ever been to camp,
there's
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00:07:24
a big, nasty cow pond that
we use to baptize people,
-
00:07:26
which is amazing.
-
00:07:27
So I'm standing
on the edge of that
-
00:07:28
and I'm watching the baptisms,
-
00:07:30
and I'm sitting there
and there's shadow,
-
00:07:31
just this shadow
just falls over me.
-
00:07:33
And I look over
and there's this guy.
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00:07:35
I mean,
this guy was six foot five,
-
00:07:37
250, just corn fed.
I'm looking at this guy.
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00:07:38
He's looking at me really
intensely, and he says,
-
00:07:41
"Hey,
did you see my arm right here?"
-
00:07:43
And I said, "Yeah."
And he had these scabs
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00:07:44
on his arm that
looked pretty fresh.
-
00:07:46
I was like, yeah.
He said, "So Monday,"
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00:07:48
this is Sunday.
So Monday previous.
-
00:07:50
"Monday I came home from work,
-
00:07:52
caught my old lady in
bed with my best friend.
-
00:07:55
And Monday night I went
out in the car in the garage,
-
00:07:58
threw a rope over the rafter
-
00:08:00
and I tied it around my
neck and I hung myself."
-
00:08:03
The rope snapped
and he landed on
-
00:08:05
a bunch of yard implements
that he had in his garage.
-
00:08:08
And that's what
he cut his arm up.
-
00:08:09
He's kind of bruised up
and battered, and he said,
-
00:08:11
"And the only reason I
didn't get back up there
-
00:08:13
and retie that rope is
because I remembered
-
00:08:15
I was coming here this weekend."
-
00:08:17
And so, I mean,
if that's the only reason --
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00:08:21
If that guy is the only
reason we do camp
-
00:08:22
and there's a bunch
of those guys, so.
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00:08:27
- Welcome to Crossroads.
We're in a Push.
-
00:08:29
I don't know if you're
seeking to understand
-
00:08:31
who Jesus is,
if you're a believer in Jesus,
-
00:08:34
but we're trying
to do is push us,
-
00:08:37
push us to get closer to Him,
-
00:08:39
push us to be more like Him,
-
00:08:41
push us to have a peace
that passes all understanding.
-
00:08:45
So to do that,
we're going to push ourselves
-
00:08:48
to tell Him that
He's pretty good.
-
00:08:49
Tell him He's great.
-
00:08:51
It's also known as worshiping.
-
00:08:53
And why don't we
stand up right now
-
00:08:54
at all of our sites?
-
00:08:55
If you're in a bar
or you're in a --
-
00:08:57
If you're in a coffee shop,
might be a little odd,
-
00:08:59
but go ahead and go
for it with your earbuds in
-
00:09:01
and let's just tell
God that He is good
-
00:09:03
and we're up for
being pushed today.
-
00:09:13
- Put your hands together.
-
00:12:46
- I think you're
catching on to that one.
-
00:12:48
What do you say?
-
00:12:52
When you say to Him,
"Set my heart on fire,"
-
00:12:56
you start to awaken to the awe,
-
00:12:59
the wonder of who He is.
-
00:13:30
Come on and sing together.
-
00:22:00
- Hey, you may have heard
-
00:22:01
we had a pretty big
deal this last week.
-
00:22:03
We have a new President
Elect that's coming,
-
00:22:06
and we talked about
this a while ago.
-
00:22:09
Here's the deal.
-
00:22:10
If Kamala Harris won
or Donald Trump won,
-
00:22:13
either one was going
to be my President.
-
00:22:15
Either one.
-
00:22:16
But only one person is
ever going to be my King,
-
00:22:19
and His name is Jesus.
Only one person.
-
00:22:22
I'm never going to
lay my whole life down
-
00:22:24
for any politician,
any human being,
-
00:22:26
other than maybe my wife.
-
00:22:27
I'm not going to do that.
-
00:22:28
But this song is a heart
of reflection saying,
-
00:22:31
"God, I want You and only You
-
00:22:34
are worthy of
getting all of me."
-
00:22:35
Let's tell Him again.
Come on. Let's do it.
-
00:25:16
You know why?
-
00:25:18
You know why we would
back off of our microphones
-
00:25:21
and not be the loudest
thing in the room?
-
00:25:23
So that you don't just use
your mouths in that moment,
-
00:25:25
you use your ears and hear that
you are not the only one saying,
-
00:25:28
"Jesus, You're my king."
-
00:25:30
You're not the only one saying,
-
00:25:32
"I will live for You,
all my life for you."
-
00:25:35
We're not alone.
-
00:25:37
Using our voices
together matters.
-
00:25:40
Maybe this is the
most unified space
-
00:25:43
that we've experienced all week.
It's sacred.
-
00:25:45
It's sacred because
of Him and Him alone.
-
00:25:50
So, Jesus, I say to You,
You can have my whole heart.
-
00:25:55
Who else would I give it to?
-
00:25:57
Who else would I want
to hold it, to have it,
-
00:26:00
to challenge it, to charge it?
-
00:26:03
Who else would I
want to revive it?
-
00:26:05
Because no one else can but You.
-
00:26:07
So I give You my whole heart.
-
00:26:10
I pray all this because of you,
Jesus.
-
00:26:12
If you're in agreement with
that, then you can say Amen.
-
00:26:16
That's right. Yeah! Woo!
-
00:26:21
I'm so glad you're in the room.
-
00:26:23
Glad you're online with us.
-
00:26:24
If you're in the room,
-
00:26:25
why don't you turn
to somebody and say,
-
00:26:27
"I'm glad to be here with you,"
and have a seat.
-
00:26:30
- We met at a UC football game.
-
00:26:33
He was a cheerleader
and I thought he was hot, so.
-
00:26:39
- I had hair back then.
I had a lot going on, so.
-
00:26:43
- Tithing was a new
concept when I met Joshua.
-
00:26:45
I didn't really understand it.
-
00:26:47
Like I'm giving Him 10%,
like right off the top?
-
00:26:49
Like, what do you mean?
Like, I earned that.
-
00:26:50
But once I started
doing that more regularly,
-
00:26:52
it was just like, okay,
this is what we do.
-
00:26:54
This is part of our life.
I know we did, I mean.
-
00:26:57
- It was a three year commitment
-
00:26:59
right across this campaign.
-
00:27:01
- That was like the end
of beginning of 2017,
-
00:27:03
I think is when it started.
-
00:27:04
We both kind of
went into service
-
00:27:06
with different numbers in mind.
-
00:27:08
So I was like, "All right,
we'll give 20%.
-
00:27:10
Like that's like
double our tithe.
-
00:27:12
Like, that seems like
a normal realistic thing.
-
00:27:14
Like we can do
that and still go out
-
00:27:17
and go on vacation and
blah blah, blah, blah, blah."
-
00:27:19
- We had separate cards.
-
00:27:20
She had a card, I had a card.
-
00:27:21
And we wrote down,
you know, like a game show;
-
00:27:23
- Showed each other.
-
00:27:25
- Yeah. My number was larger
-
00:27:28
than our combined gross salary.
Yeah.
-
00:27:31
It was like,
I specifically remember this.
-
00:27:33
And I'm like,
"There is no flipping way
-
00:27:36
that's going to happen.
-
00:27:38
If you really think
that's what God's saying,
-
00:27:40
I guess we can do that."
-
00:27:41
But I was really
apprehensive about it.
-
00:27:43
It's like, oh gosh, okay,
-
00:27:44
I'm not sure what
that's going to look like,
-
00:27:46
but we'll do this.
-
00:27:47
- And I didn't, and to be fair,
-
00:27:49
I didn't know either, right?
-
00:27:51
I didn't know how
that was going to work.
-
00:27:53
How can I give more
than what I have?
-
00:27:56
- Yeah. - Right? Like I can't.
-
00:27:59
I don't know, that's why.
-
00:28:02
But that's how God works.
He gave me the number and.
-
00:28:05
- We were like,
"All right, let's do this."
-
00:28:07
So we signed the commitment card
-
00:28:10
and we took it up on the stage,
put it in the box.
-
00:28:12
I know we went out to
dinner that night afterwards.
-
00:28:14
I was like,
"This is probably our last night
-
00:28:16
of freedom for like three years.
-
00:28:17
So let's order drinks
and all the things."
-
00:28:20
I'm a nurse,
so I was working at a hospital,
-
00:28:23
had part time hours.
And right away,
-
00:28:24
like within months of
the campaign starting,
-
00:28:26
I was offered a
full time position.
-
00:28:28
So I was like, "All right,
this is awesome.
-
00:28:30
Like, things are happening,
we're getting more income."
-
00:28:32
And then a few months later,
he was --
-
00:28:35
He got a different job
-
00:28:36
making the most
money he's ever made.
-
00:28:38
So I'm like, "All right,
we can do this.
-
00:28:40
Like we can live off of yours.
-
00:28:41
All of mine can go to I'm In,
-
00:28:43
like, we can totally do this."
-
00:28:45
So it was, "Oh, wow,
we can actually make
-
00:28:47
this commitment and still
go to dinner and have drinks."
-
00:28:49
- Yes.
-
00:28:50
- And still actually
go on a vacation?
-
00:28:54
Yes. Right. So it was like,
"Wow, awesome, God,
-
00:28:56
like You showed up. Let's go."
-
00:28:57
So that was a high.
-
00:28:59
And then it was
back down to my job
-
00:29:02
that had the large raise.
-
00:29:03
And the best job I've ever had
-
00:29:07
was suddenly cut short
through an acquisition.
-
00:29:09
Now where I'm
where am I going to go.
-
00:29:11
What am I going to do?
-
00:29:12
I transitioned from one
career path into another,
-
00:29:19
but it was also a
very low income time.
-
00:29:21
But we were committed to
meeting that commitment.
-
00:29:25
What that looked
like was us moving
-
00:29:28
out of our apartment and
moving into her parents house.
-
00:29:33
- Yeah.
-
00:29:34
- And praise God that
we were able to do that.
-
00:29:37
But, you know,
there was no way for us
-
00:29:39
to make this commitment without
-
00:29:42
making an extreme
move like that.
-
00:29:44
Yeah.
-
00:29:45
- And the normal
things in terms of
-
00:29:46
like cutting back
on expenses and.
-
00:29:48
- That was the biggest
expense was rent.
-
00:29:50
So it was like it had to go.
-
00:29:51
- Yeah. I don't really
think we took vacations
-
00:29:53
during that time. - No.
-
00:29:55
So, yeah, like where
we thought we were like,
-
00:29:57
oh man, we're sailing.
-
00:29:58
And it was like,
yeah, I don't know.
-
00:30:00
- Just kidding.
- I really don't know.
-
00:30:02
And even sold my motorcycle.
- Yes.
-
00:30:04
- So if anyone ever
questions if I love God,
-
00:30:06
know that I sold my motorcycle
-
00:30:08
to help meet this commitment.
-
00:30:10
We barely made
it across the line,
-
00:30:13
bloody and sweaty
and everything else.
-
00:30:16
- Teary eyed. - Exactly.
-
00:30:17
And but what we did,
through God we did.
-
00:30:21
I'm happy to say that's
not the end of the story.
-
00:30:23
Right? Shortly,
shortly after we committed
-
00:30:26
or completed the commitment,
then I went from
-
00:30:31
another career shift
into where that was
-
00:30:33
a very low earning
to the highest earning
-
00:30:36
and percentages
above where I was
-
00:30:39
even before the commitments.
-
00:30:40
- During that same time,
we were also
-
00:30:42
going through
a fertility journey
-
00:30:44
trying to get pregnant
with our first child.
-
00:30:46
So again, like highs,
highs of like
-
00:30:49
making the most
money we've ever made,
-
00:30:50
lows of having a miscarriage.
-
00:30:52
And I specifically remember,
like,
-
00:30:54
just calling out
to Him in the car
-
00:30:56
and being like, "Lord, I can't,
I don't know what to do anymore.
-
00:30:58
Like it is all You."
-
00:31:00
And like, boom, we got pregnant.
Boom.
-
00:31:02
Like just the gifts.
-
00:31:03
All of our friends and family,
coworkers,
-
00:31:06
we had like five baby showers,
-
00:31:07
like, insane just God's goodness
-
00:31:11
and just His provision
was just poured onto us
-
00:31:13
during that season. All right.
-
00:31:15
Like, we are doing this, like,
-
00:31:16
we're giving so much, but
He is blessing us with so much.
-
00:31:19
Just the abundance
that we were feeling
-
00:31:21
at the time, so it was like,
I can trust Him.
-
00:31:23
I can trust Him with my money.
-
00:31:24
I can trust Him with my family.
I can trust Him.
-
00:31:27
That was the best lesson,
-
00:31:28
the biggest lesson
from that whole season.
-
00:31:30
And it was -- I will hold
that dear in my heart
-
00:31:33
from here out.
-
00:31:34
As I think about this Push,
for me
-
00:31:37
what's been on my
heart a lot this year:
-
00:31:39
How much do you
really trust God?
-
00:31:44
Do you trust Him,
in our prior example,
-
00:31:47
to that amount of
commitment on a card?
-
00:31:50
And our actions prove
where our trust is,
-
00:31:53
where we're putting our faith.
-
00:31:55
And if He's proved
himself in the past
-
00:31:57
financially with us through
the I'm In commitment,
-
00:31:59
if He's proved Himself
through our career,
-
00:32:03
through our family,
through the infertility
-
00:32:06
or fertility journe.
-
00:32:08
If He's proved Himself
in so many ways
-
00:32:09
that I can see,
just in the ways that I can see,
-
00:32:12
how do I not trust Him again?
-
00:32:14
For me, I pray that I am
humble enough to say yes.
-
00:32:18
That it's never been about me.
-
00:32:22
It's -- It's -- It's always
been about Christ.
-
00:32:35
It's always everything,
everything for God's glory.
-
00:32:41
How much more could He do
to show me that He loves me?
-
00:32:44
$100,000,
I didn't say it earlier,
-
00:32:46
but $100,000 was the
was the commitment.
-
00:32:51
What is that to God?
-
00:32:53
It crushes me that
my own selfishness
-
00:32:58
keeps me from an
even deeper relationship
-
00:33:00
with Christ when
He's given so much.
-
00:33:03
I know these things.
Will I do them?
-
00:33:05
That's -- That's my challenge.
-
00:33:10
- What's the key word there?
-
00:33:12
100%. 100%.
-
00:33:18
It's not the dollar amount.
-
00:33:20
It's the amount of our
hearts that God has.
-
00:33:24
Hey,
you might be brand new today,
-
00:33:26
may not be sure
there's any difference
-
00:33:27
between Jesus and Buddha.
-
00:33:30
You may be a long
time church goer,
-
00:33:33
but you got to know
if you're here today,
-
00:33:35
it's because God
wants to push you
-
00:33:37
and we're pushing
each other to get us
-
00:33:39
to 100% Christ likeness.
-
00:33:43
And I'm pretty
excited to talk to you
-
00:33:44
about what we're
going to talk about today.
-
00:33:46
Believe it or not,
you're going to love this.
-
00:33:48
Telling you right now.
-
00:33:49
Tell the person next to you,
"I'm going to love this today,"
-
00:33:51
because I'm telling
you right now,
-
00:33:53
you're going to leave here
going, "That was so good."
-
00:33:55
That's what's going
to happen today.
-
00:33:56
So be happy,
right now I'm just telling you,
-
00:33:58
I'm projecting forward
just be happy right now.
-
00:34:00
That's the way it is.
So let me pray for us.
-
00:34:02
God, I thank You for
the ability to talk about
-
00:34:05
things that are
transcendent and that are fun,
-
00:34:07
and that are deep and
that are challenging,
-
00:34:10
because that's
all of who You are,
-
00:34:13
all of that and more.
-
00:34:14
Help me to
accurately reflect You
-
00:34:16
and to communicate
Your truth to Your people.
-
00:34:20
And I ask for Your help
to be wise and clear.
-
00:34:24
And I pray these
things according to
-
00:34:25
the character and
identity of Jesus. Amen.
-
00:34:31
Totality. I've become
somewhat of a geek, I guess.
-
00:34:38
I never would have
thought myself being a geek,
-
00:34:41
but man,
I love reading about NASA
-
00:34:46
and the early space program.
-
00:34:48
I've become a bit
of an astronomer.
-
00:34:51
I love,
but one of my favorite things
-
00:34:53
I've done in the last few years
-
00:34:54
have been to two eclipses.
Oh my gosh. Amazing.
-
00:34:59
Like, I'm getting pretty geeky.
-
00:35:01
Like,
I'm the kind of guy now that
-
00:35:03
I would have picked
on myself in high school.
-
00:35:05
You know? Did a lot
of things in high school
-
00:35:07
I'm not proud of.
I probably would have
-
00:35:08
picked on the kid who
had a pocket protector.
-
00:35:10
And I'm about
ready to start wearing
-
00:35:11
a pocket protector
with pens in it,
-
00:35:13
just so you know.
-
00:35:14
When I went and saw
the last eclipse I did,
-
00:35:17
you could stay
local where you were
-
00:35:20
if you were in the tri
state area here in Ohio
-
00:35:23
or Indiana or Kentucky,
-
00:35:25
or you could
make a bit of a ride
-
00:35:26
and you could get to where
-
00:35:28
it was going to
be a total eclipse.
-
00:35:32
You might think, well,
99% is pretty good,
-
00:35:34
but it's really not 100.
-
00:35:36
This is what 99% looks like.
-
00:35:38
99% is, it's like
a -- it's like a little,
-
00:35:41
oh, we've got a little
crescent moon up there.
-
00:35:43
It's a little darker at
2:00 than it should be.
-
00:35:46
It's cool for sure.
It's very, very cool.
-
00:35:49
But if you haven't
been to a total eclipse,
-
00:35:51
it's nothing at all like 99.
Nothing.
-
00:35:54
Because things go dark.
-
00:35:56
The birds get fooled, they go,
-
00:35:59
"Oh,
I guess it's time to go to bed."
-
00:36:01
The crickets, they go,
"Oh, night time already."
-
00:36:04
They start coming out.
-
00:36:06
It gets drops in
temperature immediately.
-
00:36:08
It is crazy.
-
00:36:10
And this is the way
it is with many of us
-
00:36:13
if we choose to
follow of Christ,
-
00:36:14
we get pretty impressed
with ourselves.
-
00:36:16
Like, man, I'm really good.
-
00:36:17
I'm better than the
person who's 75.
-
00:36:20
I'm really awesome."
Better, I don't know.
-
00:36:23
God doesn't love you more
-
00:36:24
because you're more
than somebody else.
-
00:36:27
But I'll tell you
when you get to 100,
-
00:36:30
and no one's ever
going to get to 100
-
00:36:32
as far as being sin free,
having no issues,
-
00:36:35
but 100 means well, we say,
-
00:36:38
"I lay my whole life down.
I am Yours.
-
00:36:40
I am on a journey, God."
-
00:36:42
When you get to 100 is
when things get changed,
-
00:36:45
not 99, 100.
-
00:36:47
And you say, "Everything
that I have is Yours,
-
00:36:49
God, because You have
given me everything,"
-
00:36:51
and it's a beautiful,
profound thing.
-
00:36:54
Abraham Kuyper
was the prime minister
-
00:36:58
of the Netherlands.
And he said this. He says:
-
00:37:01
There is not a square
inch in the whole domain
-
00:37:05
of our human existence
over which Christ,
-
00:37:08
who is sovereign over all,
does not cry, Mine!
-
00:37:13
Mine.
-
00:37:15
Everything I have,
everything you have is God's.
-
00:37:18
He's entrusted all of it to us,
-
00:37:22
and He knows it's all His.
-
00:37:25
And I'm now talking
just about your life.
-
00:37:27
I'm not even talking
about our stuff
-
00:37:28
that we've talked about
getting on the table.
-
00:37:30
I'm just talking about our life.
-
00:37:32
We have to come to
surrender to the truth
-
00:37:35
that He says, I am His.
He possesses me.
-
00:37:39
And as long as I try to
tug myself away from Him
-
00:37:42
or maintain my own
sovereign identity,
-
00:37:46
the longer I do that,
the less peace
-
00:37:48
I'm going to have that
passes all understanding.
-
00:37:51
The less fruit of the
Spirit I'm going to have:
-
00:37:53
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness,
-
00:37:54
all those things.
-
00:37:57
Isaiah 54 has been a verse that
-
00:37:59
I've shared with a
number of people.
-
00:38:01
I don't know if
everyone heard it here.
-
00:38:02
I want to give some
different angles on this.
-
00:38:04
This is a verse
-
00:38:05
that is basically our
theme in this Push.
-
00:38:08
In this Push I'm
pushing on you right now,
-
00:38:10
you're pushing on me,
God's pushing on me.
-
00:38:13
We're saying, "Hey,
do you want more of God?
-
00:38:15
Do you want more of His Spirit?
-
00:38:17
Do you want more of the
plans that He has for your life?
-
00:38:20
Do you want the
possibility of seeing
-
00:38:23
an awakening in your lifetime,
-
00:38:24
where the Spirit of
God moves over land
-
00:38:27
and crazy things happen?
Do you want that?"
-
00:38:29
We're pushing on that stuff.
-
00:38:31
And Isaiah 54 has been a clear,
clear sign for us.
-
00:38:35
Here's what it says:
-
00:38:55
I want to give a few words
and talk about these here.
-
00:38:58
One is right there, let's
look at the first one here.
-
00:39:00
Oh! Excuse me. Go away from me.
-
00:39:02
There you go. Right here.
-
00:39:03
Enlarge, enlarge, enlarge.
Going up there?
-
00:39:10
It looks really cool right here.
-
00:39:12
Really cool. Like there's a
red circle that looks great.
-
00:39:21
Okay. It looks cool to me.
I'm having fun.
-
00:39:26
All right,
let's just talk about it.
-
00:39:28
Let's talk through
this right here.
-
00:39:29
Enlarge the place of your tent.
-
00:39:32
I don't know what's wrong,
what the problem is
-
00:39:35
with many of us
who get really weird
-
00:39:37
if something gets bigger
in the Kingdom of God.
-
00:39:40
Like, when something
starts to grow, we go,
-
00:39:42
"Something weird is
happening over there."
-
00:39:44
And now part of that
is because large things
-
00:39:46
and large churches,
there have been
-
00:39:48
some horrible scandals
and stuff that's happened
-
00:39:50
in large things
in large churches.
-
00:39:52
But understand,
not more than smaller churches.
-
00:39:55
Actually, way more scandals
happen in smaller churches.
-
00:39:58
I know a bit about this.
-
00:39:59
This is kind of my industry.
-
00:40:00
You just know about
it in big churches
-
00:40:01
because that's
what gets publicized
-
00:40:04
and it's horrible, it's awful.
-
00:40:06
But what's really awful is
when God's people think
-
00:40:09
that when something is
growing and getting bigger,
-
00:40:12
something is wrong.
Let me ask you this.
-
00:40:13
When your savings are getting --
Are growing and getting bigger,
-
00:40:16
if that's happening
with your paycheck
-
00:40:17
or your savings is that bad?
-
00:40:19
If your muscles are
growing and getting bigger,
-
00:40:22
is that bad?
-
00:40:24
If your family,
if you have a family,
-
00:40:25
is growing, getting bigger,
is that bad?
-
00:40:27
I'll tell you what,
man, every time
-
00:40:28
I see somebody Crossroads
who adopts a child,
-
00:40:31
who fosters a child, and of
course has their own child,
-
00:40:35
jeez, it is massive.
-
00:40:38
Like, wow,
you are enlarging your life.
-
00:40:43
You're enlarging your heart.
-
00:40:45
You're looking for that to grow.
-
00:40:47
And here, Crossroads,
we believe it's a good thing
-
00:40:50
to be a part of something
that is getting larger,
-
00:40:52
because Jesus said that's
the way it should happen.
-
00:40:54
He said,
greater things will you do.
-
00:40:56
Greater, that means,
includes larger.
-
00:40:58
He said, "Go into all the world,
-
00:41:00
baptizing in the name
of the Father, Son."
-
00:41:02
The whole world.
Why go the whole world?
-
00:41:03
Because He wants more people
in His family, that's why.
-
00:41:07
The book of Acts
says again and again
-
00:41:09
God added 3000 people
to their number that day.
-
00:41:11
Why does it do that?
-
00:41:13
Because it's
called a celebration.
-
00:41:15
Enlarging, getting large.
-
00:41:16
Your life,
God having more of your life.
-
00:41:19
Do you want God
to have your life
-
00:41:21
and your life to be enlarged?
-
00:41:22
Because that's what happens
when a person goes 100% to God.
-
00:41:26
Your heart gets enlarged,
-
00:41:28
your compassion gets enlarged,
-
00:41:30
your actual resiliency
gets enlarged,
-
00:41:33
your prayer life gets enlarged,
-
00:41:35
your ears to the voice
of God gets enlarged.
-
00:41:39
Now the next one,
enlarge the place of your --
-
00:41:41
Let's see if it works.
Let's try it again.
-
00:41:43
I believe.
Give me that slide again.
-
00:41:45
Give me that
black slide up there.
-
00:41:46
Come on, come on, let's do this.
-
00:41:47
Enlarge the place of your tent.
-
00:41:50
Ahh, okay. I'm circling tent,
and nothing. Okay.
-
00:41:58
Enlarge the place of your tent.
-
00:42:00
Your tent is your territory.
-
00:42:05
That's the place
where you reside.
-
00:42:08
That's the thing that
you are responsible for.
-
00:42:13
You have a tent,
or as I'll call it,
-
00:42:16
a territory that is yours.
-
00:42:18
Your body is your territory.
-
00:42:20
You're responsible
for your body.
-
00:42:22
You're responsible,
if you have a family,
-
00:42:24
for your family.
You're responsible before God.
-
00:42:26
It's God's family,
but you're responsible for it.
-
00:42:29
If you have a business,
if you have accounts
-
00:42:31
that you manage,
that's your territory.
-
00:42:34
And the image here is enlarging.
-
00:42:36
God has always been
enlarging His people.
-
00:42:38
He told Abraham,
enlarge your territory.
-
00:42:41
Look at the stars up in the sky.
-
00:42:43
You're going to outnumber them.
-
00:42:46
We have a big tent at
our base camp property.
-
00:42:51
And this last year
we enlarged it
-
00:42:52
and it was a sign of this.
-
00:42:53
How do you enlarge the tent,
that meeting tent?
-
00:42:56
Well, you go out there
and you pull up the stakes,
-
00:42:59
you pull up the stakes,
-
00:43:01
you reconfigure the
canvas and you stretch it out.
-
00:43:05
You stretch it out,
and then you re-hammer it down.
-
00:43:08
You got to go through
some disheveling
-
00:43:10
to pull things up
and hammer it down.
-
00:43:12
We're doing disheveling
here in our church right now.
-
00:43:16
We're changing things
because we are expanding
-
00:43:20
the territory that
God has given us.
-
00:43:22
In fact,
He's made it our territory.
-
00:43:26
And you in your life,
whenever you take new territory,
-
00:43:29
whenever you want
to expand your life
-
00:43:31
or expand a sector in your life,
-
00:43:33
it's going to mean
uprooting some tent pegs
-
00:43:36
that you thought
before were just fine
-
00:43:38
and you didn't want to do it.
-
00:43:39
It's going to mean some change.
-
00:43:40
Another key word that
we have in all of this
-
00:43:43
is your,
stretch out place of your tent.
-
00:43:48
Stretch your tent curtains.
-
00:43:49
Do not hold back.
Lengthen your cords.
-
00:43:51
Strengthen your stakes.
-
00:43:52
For you will spread out
to the right and the left.
-
00:43:55
And your children
will possess nations
-
00:43:56
and settle in desolate cities.
-
00:43:58
Six times your, your,
your, your, your, your.
-
00:44:04
The idea is again your
territory, your territory.
-
00:44:09
Our church,
we have four territories,
-
00:44:12
four things that are
our assignments,
-
00:44:14
that are our territories,
that we have --
-
00:44:16
We believe we have
-
00:44:18
a responsibility
before God to expand.
-
00:44:20
Now, they're not
the kind of territories
-
00:44:22
that you might think they are.
-
00:44:23
Our territory is not teaching.
-
00:44:25
Our territory is not music.
-
00:44:27
There are some churches,
their territory is music.
-
00:44:29
And they have like, you know,
-
00:44:32
gazillions of views of
worship on YouTube.
-
00:44:34
We don't.
-
00:44:35
There's some people
who have a territory
-
00:44:37
of teaching,
and everyone and their brother
-
00:44:39
asks them to go speak
at places and conferences,
-
00:44:41
and they get nice
speaker fees and all that.
-
00:44:43
We don't get that.
None of us get that here.
-
00:44:45
All of us would
love to have that.
-
00:44:46
Maybe God'll do it someday,
-
00:44:48
but those things
aren't our territories.
-
00:44:49
There's actually four things
-
00:44:50
where God has
told us we believe.
-
00:44:52
And how do we say that?
-
00:44:53
We've heard it from
Him in the results
-
00:44:55
that He's given us and
the ideas He's given us,
-
00:44:57
and affirmation from prayer.
-
00:44:59
Four things that God
has distinctly said,
-
00:45:03
"Crossroads this
is your territory,
-
00:45:05
your contribution
to the Kingdom.
-
00:45:06
You're supposed to
have a disproportionat
-
00:45:08
e impact in these areas."
-
00:45:10
And God is asking
us to enlarge it.
-
00:45:13
We've been talking
about those the whole time.
-
00:45:15
The only one we'll talk
about today is reach out.
-
00:45:19
Reach out, reach out
is the things that we do
-
00:45:22
outside of our buildings,
-
00:45:23
outside our
traditional ministries,
-
00:45:25
to help people who are hurting,
-
00:45:27
to help people who are
a little bit on the outs,
-
00:45:29
to help people who have
been given a bad hand,
-
00:45:31
to help people
who are in poverty,
-
00:45:34
who are just in crisis mode,
-
00:45:37
and they need the
hands and feet of Jesus
-
00:45:40
to come along and give a hand up
-
00:45:42
more than just a handout.
-
00:45:44
The body of Christ to come
-
00:45:47
and be the love of
God with skin on.
-
00:45:51
And this is why the movement
of Jesus is one of movement.
-
00:45:55
It's called a movement because
we're meant to be moving.
-
00:45:58
We're not meant
to be philosophers.
-
00:46:00
We're not meant to be debaters.
-
00:46:02
I know a lot of people who have
-
00:46:03
the Christian banner, who
are philosophers and debaters.
-
00:46:07
We're here at Crossroads,
we're not philosophers
-
00:46:09
and debaters, we're doers.
-
00:46:11
We get stuff done around here.
We go.
-
00:46:14
We go after things
because we believe this is
-
00:46:16
a core competency of
God's people to be moving.
-
00:46:18
Right now,
whether you know it or not,
-
00:46:20
you know right now
you're moving right now.
-
00:46:22
You're like, "No, I'm not.
I'm sitting in a nice chair."
-
00:46:24
No, you're moving.
Right now the earth is spinning
-
00:46:28
and you're moving at
492,126 miles an hour.
-
00:46:33
Right now you're moving.
-
00:46:34
You just don't notice it
because you're used to it.
-
00:46:37
As you spiritually mature
and as God pushes you
-
00:46:39
into new territory,
you will be stunned at
-
00:46:42
how you won't even
notice how often
-
00:46:45
and frequently change
happens because
-
00:46:46
you'll be used to it.
You'll be acclimated.
-
00:46:48
But when you first
start following Christ,
-
00:46:50
like the smallest thing,
like, "Oh, my gosh,
-
00:46:52
starting a prayer time,
I don't know how to do that.
-
00:46:54
It freaks me out."
-
00:46:55
The smallest thing, like,
I want to maybe read
-
00:46:57
a chapter of the Bible a day.
Oh my gosh."
-
00:46:59
But as you progress,
as God starts to eclipse you
-
00:47:03
more and more and
He starts to push you
-
00:47:05
and you start to
feel the fruit of it,
-
00:47:07
you start naturally
moving and doing things
-
00:47:09
that you would
have never thought
-
00:47:11
you would have done before.
-
00:47:12
Jesus says,
"My father is always moving
-
00:47:15
up into the present time
and I too am moving."
-
00:47:18
We as a church, we move.
-
00:47:20
We don't philosophize,
we don't debate.
-
00:47:23
We don't theorize, we move.
-
00:47:26
We move and we expand because
-
00:47:29
that's what the
Bible says to do.
-
00:47:32
We enlarge and we
uproot things because
-
00:47:34
we want a tent for
more people to be under.
-
00:47:37
And all of us in here,
every site,
-
00:47:40
someone before you
made that decision
-
00:47:43
and what that to give us
the opportunity to do that.
-
00:47:46
And then what happens
is as we come in,
-
00:47:48
we have more capacity to bless
-
00:47:51
and help more hurting people.
-
00:47:54
By the way,
we're doing everything we can
-
00:47:56
to push you in here. Everything.
-
00:47:58
And I'm, quite frankly,
a bit stunned that
-
00:48:00
all of us aren't
taking advantage of it.
-
00:48:02
Like the material,
we poured a lot of money
-
00:48:04
into all the materials
because we want to push you
-
00:48:07
to new spiritual depths.
-
00:48:08
And if you looked at them,
you know
-
00:48:11
there isn't a single
firm in New York City
-
00:48:15
we could have hired
that would do better,
-
00:48:17
more powerful spiritual
content than that.
-
00:48:20
The digital prayer experience
is freaking amazing.
-
00:48:24
Am I right?
Oh my gosh, I'm telling you,
-
00:48:28
do not, do not just sit there
-
00:48:30
and just come to a service
-
00:48:32
and allow this to pass you by.
-
00:48:34
God's moving and you
need to get on, get in
-
00:48:38
and allow God to meet
you exactly where you are.
-
00:48:41
One of the ways we've
been moving for a long time
-
00:48:44
is by reaching
people who have been
-
00:48:47
in the rape for profit
industry in India.
-
00:48:51
It's the epicenter of the
rape for profit industry,
-
00:48:56
of little girls are are kidnaped
-
00:48:59
and put in slavery,
or as their parents
-
00:49:02
are deluded into
thinking they can
-
00:49:03
let their their young
daughter go with
-
00:49:05
the person who's going
to take them to the big city
-
00:49:07
and get a stewardess
job or some such thing.
-
00:49:10
And God has called us,
and we've just been there
-
00:49:13
and in this, and we've
been in it for a long time.
-
00:49:15
It's a territory of ours,
-
00:49:16
and we're going
to expand it today,
-
00:49:18
and you're going to like this.
-
00:49:19
But first we're going
to take a look at
-
00:49:21
one of our people who
we have actually rescued
-
00:49:24
and her journey.
-
00:49:25
And you might have seen
the first part of her journey,
-
00:49:28
but you haven't seen
the most recent part.
-
00:49:29
Let me introduce you to Anjali.
-
00:53:30
- When we when we
paid for her rescue,
-
00:53:32
and we enabled
Anjali to have a place
-
00:53:35
to start healing up aftercare.
-
00:53:37
It takes a while.
-
00:53:38
You're talking
about about little girls
-
00:53:40
that have been raped
and giving blowjobs
-
00:53:43
20 times a day for years on end.
-
00:53:47
And I use very crass
language intentionally
-
00:53:51
because we get numb
when we hear these things.
-
00:53:55
And we have to
have a broken heart
-
00:53:58
for the broken,
the literal broken people.
-
00:54:01
And when she started
having these dreams
-
00:54:04
of a school and we started
to listen to her dreams,
-
00:54:07
we were told by
people who knew better,
-
00:54:10
said, "Hey, she keeps
talking about this school thing.
-
00:54:13
Just don't jump.
Don't break up with her.
-
00:54:15
Don't ask her about it.
Don't talk about it.
-
00:54:18
It's completely unrealistic.
Just ignore it."
-
00:54:22
That's what we were told,
and that's wrong. That's wrong.
-
00:54:28
There's things that
God wants to do
-
00:54:30
maybe in you to
enlarge your territory,
-
00:54:33
to enlarge your tents.
-
00:54:35
And when He gives
us a dream and a vision,
-
00:54:38
we don't need
people to squelch that.
-
00:54:40
We need people
to fan life into that.
-
00:54:43
By the way, that doesn't
mean it's going to happen.
-
00:54:46
It doesn't mean
it's going to be easy,
-
00:54:48
and it definitely doesn't mean
it's going to be immediate.
-
00:54:52
But it is biblical.
-
00:54:54
It is the gospel way of Jesus.
-
00:54:56
Jesus says in Matthew 19:26:
-
00:55:05
All things are possible,
especially,
-
00:55:08
especially when there's a person
-
00:55:10
who's been eclipsed by 100%
-
00:55:13
and they've been
pushed that way.
-
00:55:14
It's not possible if you
play both sides of the fence,
-
00:55:16
it's not possible at all.
-
00:55:18
It's not possible
if you just play
-
00:55:20
the Christian card to get
your bus pass into heaven
-
00:55:24
if you get taken
out by a bread truck.
-
00:55:27
That's not. No, no.
Not possible. No. Not possible.
-
00:55:29
It's possible for people
who are dependent on God,
-
00:55:32
put themselves in a place
of being a 100% all in.
-
00:55:37
And God never gives
up on anybody. Anybody.
-
00:55:43
He's never going
to give up on you,
-
00:55:45
even if you're playing
around with Him,
-
00:55:47
even if you're just
checking the box.
-
00:55:48
I've got good news for you,
-
00:55:49
He's never going
to give up on you.
-
00:55:52
He likes you where you are.
-
00:55:54
He wants to push you,
-
00:55:55
but He's thankful
that you are here.
-
00:55:58
He's thankful that you
want to hear from Him.
-
00:56:03
Man, Kyle last week said
so many amazing things,
-
00:56:07
didn't he? Just, just,
just amazing, amazing stuff.
-
00:56:12
Um, I don't know that I like
Kyle talking about my age.
-
00:56:18
I don't like that he pulled
out a carton of Depends
-
00:56:21
and implied that I need
Depends in my ripe old age.
-
00:56:24
I don't know. You know,
I mean, when's it going to stop?
-
00:56:27
I mean, that just seems really,
really rude.
-
00:56:31
And I'm,
so I'm just going to let Kyle
-
00:56:32
have the last, last word.
-
00:56:35
He's a good man.
-
00:56:37
I'm going to let him
have the last word.
-
00:56:39
After all, I am the bigger man.
-
00:56:41
So I'm just going to let him,
-
00:56:42
let him have the last word.
-
00:56:45
But you know, but Kyle,
Kyle said something
-
00:56:47
that was really profound,
you know, he said,
-
00:56:49
"What's it going to take for
you to trust your church?"
-
00:56:54
And if we can't
trust our church,
-
00:56:56
we probably need to
find one that we can trust.
-
00:56:59
And the good news is we
have been proven trustworthy.
-
00:57:05
And I'm going to talk
about that in a moment.
-
00:57:07
And it is really good
and really powerful.
-
00:57:12
This is the trustworthiness
-
00:57:15
that we're going to step into
-
00:57:17
and then we're going
to push ourselves into
-
00:57:19
and expand this territory.
-
00:57:21
Let's keep looking
the rest of her story.
-
01:02:13
- For 19 years,
Crossroads has been dedicated
-
01:02:15
to fighting human trafficking.
-
01:02:17
Our commitment
continues with new support
-
01:02:19
for Anjali's school
expanding its impact,
-
01:02:21
and now we're making an
extraordinary leap forward,
-
01:02:25
A 220,000 square foot
campus in Nepal with
-
01:02:28
the same partner who
provided Anjali's aftercare
-
01:02:30
for eight years
following her rescue.
-
01:02:33
This new facility will offer
100 beds for aftercare,
-
01:02:36
making room for up to 500
additional rescues each year.
-
01:02:41
It will also house a school
-
01:02:42
to help hundreds
of rescued girls
-
01:02:44
and educate 500
children annually.
-
01:02:47
Additionally, new programs
will serve young boys
-
01:02:50
working to prevent
trafficking before it begins.
-
01:02:53
The land has been
secured thanks to
-
01:02:56
the generosity of our community.
-
01:02:57
Now it's time to
change the world
-
01:03:00
and show more girls that dreams
-
01:03:02
they once thought
impossible are within reach.
-
01:03:06
And to our community
across the world,
-
01:03:08
all the families who
helped fund Anjali's rescue
-
01:03:11
and recovery, this is the
message she wanted you to hear.
-
01:04:07
[applause]
-
01:04:11
- Wow.
-
01:04:13
The first time I went
over to that area
-
01:04:15
of the world to see
things for myself,
-
01:04:19
I was in a -- where
a bunch of girls
-
01:04:23
had been rescued in this home,
and there was one
-
01:04:26
was just in the
corner on a chair,
-
01:04:28
just looking down,
like a beaten dog, you know?
-
01:04:33
Just she wouldn't
make any eye contact
-
01:04:35
because if she made
eye contact she felt like
-
01:04:37
she was drawing
attention to herself.
-
01:04:39
And in the brothel, every time
-
01:04:40
she drew attention to herself,
-
01:04:41
something horrible
would happen to her.
-
01:04:44
And I heard a bit
about her story.
-
01:04:46
And then as I
got in the taxi cab
-
01:04:47
and we were going
back to the hotel
-
01:04:49
and we were bouncing along,
I was asking about
-
01:04:52
what needed to
be done to do more.
-
01:04:54
Why couldn't more girls get out?
-
01:04:55
And we heard that
from the experts there
-
01:04:57
that it was a lack
of aftercare homes.
-
01:05:00
Why rescue if you can't put
them in someplace, you know?
-
01:05:03
And that's when we said,
"All right, we will,
-
01:05:06
we will show up for this.
-
01:05:08
We will we will
show up for this."
-
01:05:10
And we've been showing up.
-
01:05:12
And that's a $3 million project,
-
01:05:15
and we want to do it all.
-
01:05:16
We want to wipe the whole thing.
-
01:05:18
We want to do a 220,000
square foot campus
-
01:05:22
that houses all the girls.
-
01:05:23
Do you want to do that?
I want to do that.
-
01:05:27
You know why?
Because that's our territory.
-
01:05:30
God's entrusted that to us.
-
01:05:32
We've been doing that
more than any other entity
-
01:05:36
in America for
the last 25 years.
-
01:05:38
We've been hitting
the same nail over
-
01:05:40
and over and over
and over again.
-
01:05:42
I don't know any other entity,
any one I know,
-
01:05:44
let me put that that way.
-
01:05:45
And so we want to expand that.
-
01:05:48
And here's the thing,
we talk about this.
-
01:05:50
You guys, this is kind of
cool talking about this stuff
-
01:05:52
when we've been around
as a church now for 28 years,
-
01:05:55
those of you who've
been around for any length,
-
01:05:57
you know this.
Let me just remind you of this.
-
01:05:59
Everything we've ever said
we would do, we've done it.
-
01:06:04
Let me say it again.
-
01:06:06
Everything we've
ever said we would do
-
01:06:09
we've done it 100%.
-
01:06:14
You can't identify
anything we said
-
01:06:16
we were going to do
that we didn't. We do.
-
01:06:18
Now some things we've
done have been failures.
-
01:06:20
We built the largest
privately funded
-
01:06:22
Aids hospital in South Africa.
-
01:06:23
That went for a while
and then it failed.
-
01:06:25
We've got some failures,
-
01:06:27
but we're not blowing
smoke up any of our rear ends
-
01:06:31
right here to try
to motivate giving.
-
01:06:33
This is who we've been
and these territories
-
01:06:36
we're expanding,
we're not talking about
-
01:06:38
maintaining these territories.
-
01:06:39
You know,
I've never been in a church,
-
01:06:43
and I've been in
a number of them,
-
01:06:44
where when a roof goes out,
-
01:06:46
when an HVAC unit goes out,
when pavement goes out,
-
01:06:50
when there's going
to be new carpet
-
01:06:52
where there hasn't been
some sort of campaign
-
01:06:54
or fundraising to
buy the new roof.
-
01:06:57
And that's understandable
and that's fine.
-
01:06:59
But, you know,
we've never done that here.
-
01:07:01
We don't raise money
to do basic maintenance.
-
01:07:05
We put that in our
budget and we deal with it.
-
01:07:08
And it always sucks
to write those bills,
-
01:07:10
but we do that.
-
01:07:12
And what that means
is when we have
-
01:07:14
these unique opportunities,
we actually get
-
01:07:17
to expand territory
instead of just maintaining
-
01:07:19
the territory that
we have right now.
-
01:07:22
It's really fun.
-
01:07:23
1 Corinthians 9:6-7 says this:
-
01:07:52
He loves a cheerful giver.
-
01:07:54
I love this: not reluctantly
or under compulsion.
-
01:07:58
Part of how we're being
pushed is to take on
-
01:08:02
the value system of Jesus,
-
01:08:04
and He is a sacrificial giver.
-
01:08:06
He sacrificed by laying
His life down on a cross.
-
01:08:11
And when you come
to the family of God,
-
01:08:13
you learn to
adhere to the values
-
01:08:15
that are in our family,
the family traditions.
-
01:08:18
And that includes,
from time to time,
-
01:08:21
financial sacrifice.
-
01:08:23
And that's why it says here,
not under --
-
01:08:26
Not reluctantly,
because it never feels good,
-
01:08:29
but not reluctantly.
-
01:08:30
You realize, "Oh no, this
kind of comes with the deal,
-
01:08:33
with following Jesus
it comes with a deal."
-
01:08:34
And not under compulsion,
-
01:08:36
which is why we
never tell anybody,
-
01:08:37
there's never any such
thing as a fair share.
-
01:08:40
There's never any thermometer.
-
01:08:41
There's never any,
like, brow beating.
-
01:08:43
There's never
here's your number.
-
01:08:44
There's never
anything like that.
-
01:08:46
That would be compulsion.
-
01:08:47
For God loves a cheerful giver.
-
01:08:49
A cheerful giver is
somebody who understands
-
01:08:53
what they want to do before God,
-
01:08:54
in and of their own
relationship with God.
-
01:08:57
Sometimes a cheerful
giver is a freaked out giver.
-
01:09:00
We had event the
other night where people
-
01:09:02
were able to make
some commitments,
-
01:09:03
some leaders ahead of time,
-
01:09:04
and there was genuine
tears with many.
-
01:09:07
And I was having hugs with them
-
01:09:09
and it was because
it was daunting.
-
01:09:10
It's daunting to be like Jesus.
-
01:09:12
It is heavy and it is
rich and it is beautiful.
-
01:09:17
This chapter says if you
want to reap a bounty,
-
01:09:21
you must sow a lot of seed.
-
01:09:24
Holding back your seed
doesn't give you more fruit.
-
01:09:27
You've got to sow that seed.
-
01:09:30
And so next week we're
going to end this Journey,
-
01:09:33
we're going to
end this Push with
-
01:09:36
a really cool seed
throwing exercise.
-
01:09:40
You know what it's called.
-
01:09:42
It's called a commitment card,
that's what it's called.
-
01:09:44
It's called a commitment.
-
01:09:45
Good old fashioned commitment
card, that's what it is.
-
01:09:48
I just don't want to
freak you out too much.
-
01:09:49
No surprises next week.
-
01:09:51
I know you are all amazing.
-
01:09:52
This is the history
of Crossroads.
-
01:09:53
You're all going to
show up next week.
-
01:09:55
We're probably going to
have higher attendance
-
01:09:57
than we have this week,
-
01:09:58
because that's
who God calls here.
-
01:09:59
Because that's who we are,
because we're doers here.
-
01:10:01
Because we do hard things here,
-
01:10:04
because we want to sow
seed in people's lives here.
-
01:10:06
And you're going to
get this card next week.
-
01:10:08
And all you have to
think about is this is,
-
01:10:11
man,
what is it that God wants me
-
01:10:14
or that I want to tell
God that I love Him,
-
01:10:17
to give above and
beyond my regular giving?
-
01:10:20
Regular giving is
going to support
-
01:10:22
all the things that we're doing,
-
01:10:23
all the amazing ministries
we all get to benefit,
-
01:10:25
all the infrastructure for
Thanksgiving Food Drive,
-
01:10:28
all the utilities,
all the carpeting,
-
01:10:30
all the salaries of the
people who disciple you
-
01:10:32
and build into you, all of
-
01:10:33
the natural missions
giving that we give
-
01:10:36
on all kind of
stuff that's really,
-
01:10:38
all of the kids programs,
all that stuff.
-
01:10:41
But we're going to give
us ourselves the ability
-
01:10:44
to expand our territory,
the territory
-
01:10:46
that God has given us
and He wants us to expand
-
01:10:48
because it's ours,
because He's entrusted it to us.
-
01:10:52
And I only had the opportunity
-
01:10:54
to talk about one
reach out thing today.
-
01:10:55
I hope you read that
brochure we had last week,
-
01:10:57
and you're going to
see how we're going
-
01:10:59
to reach every single person
-
01:11:00
in every prison in the
entire United States.
-
01:11:03
Yes, yes,
God has given us big visions
-
01:11:08
and we have hope to
believe and trust in Him.
-
01:11:12
Isn't that fun? Isn't that
fun to get beyond normal?
-
01:11:15
Isn't it fun to
stand in the path
-
01:11:19
of the greats who have
gone before us and go,
-
01:11:21
"Man,
I'm not just going to church,
-
01:11:22
I'm being the church.
-
01:11:24
I am creating and part of a
movement that God is doing."
-
01:11:28
And we all get to do that,
-
01:11:30
and we all get to be equal
-
01:11:32
because we all
get to sow our seed.
-
01:11:34
I'm going to pray for us
-
01:11:37
and then I'm
going to have Justin
-
01:11:39
or the worship
leader at your site
-
01:11:41
who's just going to lead us
-
01:11:42
in a little meditative moment,
-
01:11:45
and then we're going to be done.
-
01:11:46
God, thank You for big visions,
great visions,
-
01:11:51
they're daunting,
they're hoarse choking.
-
01:11:55
I normally don't like
them on the front end
-
01:11:57
because I feel responsibility,
but man,
-
01:12:00
does it push me to a
deeper place with You,
-
01:12:03
which is so good and so rich.
-
01:12:05
Father, would You prepare us
-
01:12:09
for what You want
from us next week
-
01:12:11
and what You want
for us next week?
-
01:12:16
We lay our life down before You.
-
01:14:01
- Man,
such such an amazing message.
-
01:14:05
Like, there's something
about this that, like,
-
01:14:08
it's, like, uncomfortable
in the best possible way.
-
01:14:11
It's like it's not easy.
-
01:14:12
There's something
about being stretched,
-
01:14:14
something about being pushed,
I think,
-
01:14:16
because, like,
it gives you a different vision
-
01:14:18
for the future of
what's possible in you,
-
01:14:20
for you and through you.
-
01:14:23
So thanks for being
on this Journey with us.
-
01:14:25
Thanks for being
willing to be pushed.
-
01:14:27
And I just want to let you know,
like,
-
01:14:28
this whole thing is about
seeing heaven come to earth.
-
01:14:32
And in some ways
that's a big things
-
01:14:33
over the next decade
and in other ways
-
01:14:35
that is like right now,
-
01:14:37
ways you can bless somebody,
-
01:14:38
serve somebody right near you.
-
01:14:40
Thanksgiving Food
Drive is coming up.
-
01:14:42
If you are near
one of our buildings,
-
01:14:44
you can pick it up next week,
get a box, fill it,
-
01:14:46
and make sure
someone who otherwise
-
01:14:48
would not have a
Thanksgiving meal
-
01:14:50
can have an incredible
meal this year.
-
01:14:52
If you're online,
you can go to Crossroads.net/TFD
-
01:14:54
and there's a link right there.
-
01:14:56
We'll actually ship you
a box that you can fill
-
01:14:58
and give to a needy
family in your area.
-
01:15:01
- That's right.
And you know what?
-
01:15:03
We've got lots going on.
-
01:15:04
And if you've been in The Push,
you know that
-
01:15:06
we've got maybe
just one more week.
-
01:15:09
And so I want to encourage
you to finish strong.
-
01:15:11
If you've been doing a group,
-
01:15:12
if you've been in
your guide book,
-
01:15:14
just stay in there,
stay with it.
-
01:15:15
And if you've not,
this is your first week,
-
01:15:17
we do have guide books,
-
01:15:19
but you can figure
out how to get that.
-
01:15:20
This is something for everyone.
-
01:15:22
It's called the Making
Space Experience
-
01:15:24
and it is truly in
our Crossroads app,
-
01:15:27
so that means you can access it
-
01:15:28
whether you've
been on this Journey
-
01:15:30
or you just want to start today.
-
01:15:31
You can get apps,
wherever you get your apps,
-
01:15:33
you can get the Crossroads app.
-
01:15:34
This Making Space Experience,
I went through it
-
01:15:36
and it truly was a
moment with God.
-
01:15:38
And how many times
do we have a creative,
-
01:15:41
something that
immerses us in a space
-
01:15:43
where we just go,
"Lord, I just want to
-
01:15:45
see what You might
have to say to me."
-
01:15:47
So, hey, we want to
encourage you to do that.
-
01:15:49
And also, more than anything,
come back next week,
-
01:15:52
join us next week,
-
01:15:53
watch next week for
Commitment Weekend.
-
01:15:55
We have something
incredible to share
-
01:15:57
and we just believe
God is going to do
-
01:16:00
immeasurably more
than we can imagine,
-
01:16:02
as He's been doing,
some might say 10X.
-
01:16:05
- That's right.
- Anyways, it's been amazing.
-
01:16:07
Thank you so much for watching.
-
01:16:08
We'll catch you next
time on Crossroads.