-
00:00:01
There's a reason you aren't
satisfied with the ordinary,
-
00:00:04
you were made for adventure
-
00:00:07
A life with God doesn't
have to be boring.
-
00:00:10
It can be a pulse pumping,
heart pounding life of purpose
-
00:00:13
and we can guide you there.
-
00:00:15
The adventure
awaiting you is bigger
-
00:00:17
and more life giving than
you could ever imagine.
-
00:00:21
Join us every
weekend for 45 minutes
-
00:00:23
of challenge, hope
and encouragement
-
00:00:25
to guide you on your
spiritual adventure.
-
00:00:33
- Hey, everyone, I'm Hannah
-
00:00:34
and I'm a part of making
experiences here at Crossroads.
-
00:00:37
- And my name is Kyle.
-
00:00:38
I'm the community pastor
for Crossroads Church online,
-
00:00:40
which means it's my job
to help take care of you.
-
00:00:43
We'd love the chance
to do that this year.
-
00:00:45
- Yeah. Welcome to
Crossroads Church.
-
00:00:48
Maybe this is your
first time joining
-
00:00:49
or maybe you were
here for Christmas.
-
00:00:51
We are so glad
that you are here.
-
00:00:53
And we want to extend
a special welcome to you.
-
00:00:56
Well, today we're
getting started
-
00:00:57
in a new series title #goals.
-
00:01:01
- Did I do that
right? Is it this way?
-
00:01:02
- You did that, that's it, boom.
-
00:01:03
- Does it matter?
-
00:01:04
- You know what?
It probably does.
-
00:01:05
It does. It does matter.
-
00:01:07
So glad you're here.
-
00:01:08
- In this series, we
are going to help
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00:01:11
you and I get to where
we want to this year,
-
00:01:13
which is to a better place.
-
00:01:15
Because the truth
is, for a lot of us,
-
00:01:17
last year it wasn't that great.
-
00:01:19
So we want to get
to a better place.
-
00:01:20
The question is:
how do you get there?
-
00:01:23
I don't know if
you've noticed this,
-
00:01:24
but every commercial,
every everything
-
00:01:26
is offering the
path to a better life.
-
00:01:27
I saw a commercial
for our blender
-
00:01:29
that promised me a
better life yesterday.
-
00:01:30
- Yes.
-
00:01:31
- I almost went for
it, but I decided not to
-
00:01:33
because here's the thing.
-
00:01:34
Life doesn't come from
following the latest fad
-
00:01:38
It doesn't?
-
00:01:39
But life is possible,
a better life,
-
00:01:41
newer life, fresher
life. It's possible.
-
00:01:44
But the new thing, it turns out,
-
00:01:46
comes from
following the old path.
-
00:01:49
So old that it's ancient.
-
00:01:50
That's what we're
digging into this series:
-
00:01:52
the ancient path that
always leads to life.
-
00:01:56
We're going to
get started with that
-
00:01:57
right now with our
senior pastor, Brian Tome.
-
00:02:06
- Hey, I'm Brian,
welcome to Crossroads.
-
00:02:10
We're going to talk today
about the ancient path.
-
00:02:13
In the Bible, Jeremiah
6:16, it says this:
-
00:02:32
Doesn't that just sound good?
-
00:02:34
(sighs) Find rest
for your souls.
-
00:02:35
But where do you
find rest of your souls?
-
00:02:38
You find rest for your souls
-
00:02:40
by being on the
path that God wants.
-
00:02:42
At the crossroads you go
-
00:02:43
the way everybody else is going.
-
00:02:45
I drive with with my
knee, by the way.
-
00:02:46
Going the way
everybody else goes
-
00:02:48
or going the ancient path
-
00:02:50
where there is
rest for your soul.
-
00:02:53
Life on planet Earth has
changed, our faith has not.
-
00:02:57
We can choose to follow
the patterns of culture
-
00:03:00
or we can choose
a different way.
-
00:03:02
There is incredible
freedom when we let God
-
00:03:06
elevate our thinking and
our vision to new horizons.
-
00:03:09
There's a different path that
-
00:03:10
followers of Jesus have
walked for centuries.
-
00:03:12
I want you to
walk not just today,
-
00:03:14
for this whole year.
-
00:03:15
The question is,
-
00:03:16
do you want to go with
new places in your life?
-
00:03:19
If you do, you've got to
follow the ancient path.
-
00:03:22
The passage I read before
was from the Book of Jeremiah.
-
00:03:24
It's in the Old Testament.
-
00:03:26
Then we take a look at Jesus
-
00:03:28
who says this in Matthew 11:28:
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00:03:43
My yoke is easy and
my burden is light.
-
00:03:51
You know, it seems
like some people
-
00:03:52
have charmed lives, but
you'll find out they don't.
-
00:03:55
They've got major problems.
-
00:03:56
I read a story recently
in Forbes Magazine
-
00:03:59
about Tony Hsieh,
the founder of Zappos,
-
00:04:04
bought out by Amazon years ago.
-
00:04:08
And conservative estimates
he's worth $700 million.
-
00:04:15
And he recently died.
-
00:04:16
They're not sure
if it's overdose.
-
00:04:18
Not sure if it's suicide,
they're just not sure.
-
00:04:22
It's an awful thing.
-
00:04:24
This is a guy who
brought a lot of people
-
00:04:26
a lot of happiness,
let alone a lot of shoes.
-
00:04:29
And I've only got
remorse for him
-
00:04:31
and his family and
everybody close to him.
-
00:04:33
However, in this extreme case,
-
00:04:35
often times you can
find where truth is.
-
00:04:38
Truth becomes
clear in the extremes.
-
00:04:42
He would have people over
-
00:04:44
and he just partied
nonstop in Park City, Utah.
-
00:04:48
He had a private concert
with Jewel who came over
-
00:04:51
and she released
a part of her letter,
-
00:04:53
Forbes got a part of her letter
-
00:04:55
to Tony Hsieh
after she left him.
-
00:04:58
She says this:
-
00:05:16
Unfortunately, it came
to a really bad end.
-
00:05:21
I find in situations like this,
-
00:05:24
it's interesting that
the media loves --
-
00:05:27
Loves, often times
highlights mental illness.
-
00:05:29
I think mental
illness is a real thing.
-
00:05:31
It's an awful thing.
-
00:05:32
A lot of us struggle
with it. Yes.
-
00:05:35
But, you know, we
can't just keep saying
-
00:05:37
mental health issues
-
00:05:38
any time somebody's
life comes apart.
-
00:05:42
We just can't do that.
-
00:05:43
We all want to hear when someone
-
00:05:44
has a bad life or a bad ending,
-
00:05:46
"Oh, it was mental
health, mental health."
-
00:05:48
It's kind of like when you hear
-
00:05:49
somebody dies of cancer,
you want to hear that,
-
00:05:53
"Well, they were
a smoker, right?
-
00:05:55
Oh, yeah, a smoker. OK, yeah."
-
00:05:57
We want to hear
mental health issues,
-
00:05:58
we want to say,
'Well, I don't have
-
00:06:00
a verifiable condition
with mental health,
-
00:06:03
so I don't have to worry
about that happening to me."
-
00:06:06
Yes, you do,
actually. Yes, you do.
-
00:06:08
I actually think
that we pawn off
-
00:06:12
much too much to
mental health issues.
-
00:06:14
It is very, very real.
-
00:06:16
But I'll tell you,
a lot of us think
-
00:06:18
that someone's
life falling apart
-
00:06:19
when it's mental health issues,
-
00:06:20
where it might just be
they're on the wrong path.
-
00:06:22
It might just be they're
not on the ancient path.
-
00:06:28
One close friend says that:
-
00:06:38
I would love to hear
someone write about this void
-
00:06:43
and say some time he was
missing a connection with God.
-
00:06:48
There was a space in
his heart, as Pascal said,
-
00:06:51
a God shaped vacuum
that only God can inhabit.
-
00:06:55
When is someone going to say
-
00:06:57
that we're just
spiritually empty?
-
00:06:59
When is someone
going to say that
-
00:07:00
what the world
offers, it doesn't work?
-
00:07:04
The path that we're
on does not work.
-
00:07:08
I believe there's maybe
a spiritual void in you.
-
00:07:12
I believe that you
may be mentally ill
-
00:07:15
and it may not be a
chemical imbalance.
-
00:07:17
It may be there is a spiritual
imbalance in you and I.
-
00:07:22
It may be that we
are on the wrong path,
-
00:07:24
a path that leads to emptiness
-
00:07:27
that comes from our void-ness.
-
00:07:29
So today, I want to talk about
-
00:07:31
getting on a different path,
-
00:07:32
an ancient path
that actually works.
-
00:07:37
This is why I do what I do.
-
00:07:40
I'm the job I'm in
for no other reason
-
00:07:42
other than I want
to help people.
-
00:07:43
I want to help you.
-
00:07:45
This world beats us down,
-
00:07:47
sucks the life out of us.
-
00:07:49
And I believe it's only
God, it's only Jesus
-
00:07:51
that gives you
life, ultimate life.
-
00:07:54
And so I've given
my life to this
-
00:07:56
and I'm giving my
life to this series
-
00:07:58
and to you because I
want you in a better place.
-
00:08:00
And I want to be one
person who tells you
-
00:08:02
something that
other people either
-
00:08:05
don't know to tell you or
aren't willing to tell you.
-
00:08:10
I've found people who
have been awful places:
-
00:08:14
addictions, failed suicides,
divorces, bankruptcies,
-
00:08:21
every imaginable
problem you can imagine,
-
00:08:23
and you would think
that their life would end.
-
00:08:26
But I've seen with
many of those folks
-
00:08:28
again and again and again,
-
00:08:29
they get on an ancient path
-
00:08:31
and God gets a hold of
their life and they get life.
-
00:08:33
They find something
they couldn't have found
-
00:08:37
before because there
is a God who cares
-
00:08:40
and a God who inhabits you
-
00:08:42
if you get on the right path.
-
00:08:53
Oh, that's what
I'm talking about.
-
00:08:57
That's called a video shoot.
-
00:08:59
Yes.
-
00:09:00
Part of my day job.
-
00:09:03
- Brian?
- Yeah.
-
00:09:06
- Not -- not -- not that one.
-
00:09:07
- Not this one
-
00:09:08
- No, I'm sorry. That one.
-
00:09:10
- That one, all right.
-
00:09:13
- Wait. Actually, no.
-
00:09:15
No, not -- not that one.
-
00:09:18
We've got something special.
-
00:09:20
- Yeah.
-
00:09:26
- Oh, back to my old school
grunt worker days, huh?
-
00:09:29
- Yeah.
- All right. Thank you.
-
00:09:37
If you want to get to a
different place this year,
-
00:09:40
you're going to have to go
-
00:09:42
to a different place this year
-
00:09:43
and you're going to have to go
-
00:09:44
on different paths than
you've gone before.
-
00:09:48
Everyone's going the same place.
-
00:09:50
The whole masses
are heading down
-
00:09:52
this massive super highway,
-
00:09:54
whether it's paved or
a massive digital portal,
-
00:09:57
where everybody is
getting the same information,
-
00:09:59
thinking the same things,
doing the same things.
-
00:10:03
And we're all going
to a place of futility,
-
00:10:06
a place of loneliness,
a place of separation.
-
00:10:09
We're going to have to get to
-
00:10:10
a different place
on a different path.
-
00:10:12
And the problem
is the old paths,
-
00:10:15
they're all overgrown
because no one's on them.
-
00:10:19
They've got no
foot traffic on them.
-
00:10:20
The paths of our current
culture are well-worn,
-
00:10:23
everyone's using them.
-
00:10:25
But we've got to
choose to get on
-
00:10:26
a different path that
goes a different place.
-
00:10:29
Next week, I'm going to
be talking about the desert.
-
00:10:32
It's a spiritual place that
-
00:10:34
many of us find
ourselves in right now.
-
00:10:36
More of us are
struggling emotionally
-
00:10:40
and spiritually and
relationally than ever before.
-
00:10:43
I saw a recent report in
the Scientific American
-
00:10:47
that said this about
the mental health
-
00:10:49
during our pandemic:
-
00:11:17
We are not in good shape.
-
00:11:20
We are going on the wrong
path in the wrong direction.
-
00:11:24
And it's not just America
in 2020 and 2021,
-
00:11:28
this is the gist of how
all humankind walks.
-
00:11:32
Jesus saw these problems
-
00:11:34
in his own people
in the first century.
-
00:11:37
In the Book of Matthew
7:13 Jesus says this:
-
00:12:00
What are the widest and
most well maintained roads?
-
00:12:05
They're the roads
with the most traffic,
-
00:12:07
where the most people are.
-
00:12:10
Where is the bulk of spending
-
00:12:14
on our digital infrastructure?
-
00:12:16
It's where everybody is.
-
00:12:18
That's why Jesus says
it's got to be a wide gate
-
00:12:20
because everyone's going there.
-
00:12:22
But Jesus says, "Look, look.
-
00:12:23
I'm going in a
different direction
-
00:12:25
and I'm calling you
to a different place.
-
00:12:27
That's going to
be a different path.
-
00:12:28
There's not a lot
of people on it."
-
00:12:30
It doesn't need
to be big and wide
-
00:12:32
and superhighway and paved.
-
00:12:34
It's a very narrow path because
-
00:12:36
very few people
choose to go there
-
00:12:38
and very few people have
the life that can come from it.
-
00:12:41
And this path is overgrown
-
00:12:44
because so few people are on it.
-
00:12:47
We're going to clear path.
-
00:12:48
How exactly do you clear a path?
-
00:12:51
Well, I've got just the
right equipment for the job.
-
00:13:18
My whole thing for you in 2021
-
00:13:22
is to get you on an ancient
path that leads to life.
-
00:13:26
Crossroads' whole
thing is to help you
-
00:13:28
make sense of
your life, of this life,
-
00:13:31
and all of our teaching is going
-
00:13:32
to be focused on
that this year in 2021.
-
00:13:36
We've got to get
on a path that works.
-
00:13:39
We've got to get
off the superhighway
-
00:13:41
where all the masses are.
-
00:13:42
We've got to get on
the old ancient paths
-
00:13:44
that actually bring life.
-
00:13:46
And on those
paths, that path itself
-
00:13:49
is a place where things
are that people don't do,
-
00:13:52
that people don't want.
-
00:13:53
I'm going to tell
those three things are.
-
00:13:55
First, is this: the Bible.
-
00:13:59
The Bible says --
-
00:14:01
That's my old Southern
Baptist preacher coming out.
-
00:14:03
(singing) The B-I-B-L-E,
that's the book for me.
-
00:14:06
I stand alone in the word
of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
-
00:14:10
Yeah, you know we can
make fun of Bible songs,
-
00:14:13
all kind of stuff, but the
truth is: it simply works.
-
00:14:17
The Bible describes itself
-
00:14:19
in the book of 2 Timothy
3:16-17, by saying:
-
00:14:41
That verse says
that when the human.
-
00:14:47
Authors who were
penning those words,
-
00:14:50
they were penning it
with their personality
-
00:14:52
in their cultural context,
but it wasn't their opinion
-
00:14:56
that God was breathing,
He was inspiring it.
-
00:14:59
God inspiring them
and His very words
-
00:15:03
were going down on
the page as they wrote.
-
00:15:07
When you open up your Bible,
-
00:15:09
when you look at your screen
-
00:15:11
that has Bible text on it,
-
00:15:12
you're looking at
the very Word of God.
-
00:15:15
It's there to direct
you, to reprove you,
-
00:15:18
to correct you, to point
you one way or the other.
-
00:15:21
That's what it is there for.
-
00:15:22
And it simply works.
-
00:15:25
We are in an
incredibly divided nation.
-
00:15:29
We all know this.
-
00:15:30
We are incredibly bifurcated.
-
00:15:32
People on this side
and people on that side.
-
00:15:35
And whatever road
you're on that's bifurcated,
-
00:15:39
it's well-worn,
it's well traveled.
-
00:15:42
And you got all kinds of things
-
00:15:44
that are breathing on
you on your specific road.
-
00:15:48
So for some of us,
that's MSNBC or CNN.
-
00:15:51
For others of us,
that's FOX News.
-
00:15:53
And who you're
getting your news from
-
00:15:56
is likely aligning with
-
00:15:57
who's on your social media feed,
-
00:16:00
which aligns with
what your friends
-
00:16:03
have on their
social media feeds,
-
00:16:04
which aligns with the
books that you read,
-
00:16:07
which aligns with the articles
-
00:16:08
that you're exposed to,
-
00:16:09
which aligns with the
candy that you buy.
-
00:16:13
Okay, maybe not
the candy you buy,
-
00:16:15
but can we all admit that
-
00:16:18
all candy should
have nuts in it?
-
00:16:20
I mean chocolate is
just meant to have nuts
-
00:16:22
as God intended it.
-
00:16:26
But we are on the
superhighway that's feeding
-
00:16:29
us something and it's
feeding us emptiness.
-
00:16:32
It's not getting us
to the right place.
-
00:16:34
I'll often times get
criticized for things I say
-
00:16:36
or things I don't say
-
00:16:38
by people who are
on their superhighway
-
00:16:40
where all their peers are,
-
00:16:42
instead of where I am
or where I want to be,
-
00:16:44
which is on an ancient
path where there is the Bible.
-
00:16:48
If you're not exposing
yourself to the Bible
-
00:16:51
and reading it, you're
on a different path
-
00:16:54
and you should expect
that you're not going
-
00:16:56
to like or understand something
-
00:16:57
that somebody says who
actually reads the Bible.
-
00:17:00
Yes, I actually read the Bible.
-
00:17:04
We are so deeply immersed
-
00:17:06
in all these different feeds,
-
00:17:07
all these different
highways of information
-
00:17:09
that you can't expect to
understand the will of God
-
00:17:12
if you're having
like 10x more insight
-
00:17:15
from some cultural commentator
-
00:17:18
than you are from
God himself in the Bible.
-
00:17:20
We need to have the
breath of Jesus on us
-
00:17:23
that comes to the Bible,
not the breath of Joe Rogan.
-
00:17:26
I like Joe Rogan
-
00:17:28
I think his podcasts
are fascinating.
-
00:17:30
But when I'm doing
3.5 hours of Joe Rogan,
-
00:17:34
I'm not getting
3.5 hours of God.
-
00:17:37
The preponderance
of information we get
-
00:17:40
is from people who
are just chatterbox's,
-
00:17:43
who are giving us opinions
-
00:17:44
and aren't necessarily
getting us closer to God.
-
00:17:49
The Bible is your GPS;
-
00:17:51
it tells you the
direction you should go.
-
00:17:54
There's things in the
Bible I don't understand.
-
00:17:57
There's things in
the Bible I don't like.
-
00:18:01
I've got a bit of a conflict
with a neighbor right now.
-
00:18:04
This neighbor did something
-
00:18:05
that really, really bothers me.
-
00:18:07
And I've been
thinking through things
-
00:18:08
I wanted to do to get even
to get back at this person.
-
00:18:12
I've got to be very nebulous,
-
00:18:14
because maybe my
neighbor is watching right now.
-
00:18:18
But I'm convicted
that the things
-
00:18:19
that I want to do to get even
-
00:18:21
or to just kind of
jam it to this person,
-
00:18:23
it's not the things that the
Bible would tell me to do.
-
00:18:26
My Bible tells me to love
my neighbor as myself,
-
00:18:29
like my actual neighbor.
-
00:18:32
It means have warm
affections towards them
-
00:18:34
as I should have warm
affections towards myself.
-
00:18:39
The Bible is directing
me which way to go,
-
00:18:42
things I shouldn't say,
things that I should say
-
00:18:45
and our feeds are directing us
-
00:18:47
and are not helping us
see what is true, what is real.
-
00:18:51
The Bible stands, man.
-
00:18:52
It is the most dissected,
the most criticized,
-
00:18:56
the most studied book
in the history of the world,
-
00:18:59
and yet it still stands. Why?
-
00:19:02
Because it freaking
works, that's why.
-
00:19:06
It takes you down
the right path.
-
00:19:08
I watched a program on Netflix,
-
00:19:10
I recommend it highly.
-
00:19:12
It's called Social Dilemma.
-
00:19:13
And they just talk about how
-
00:19:14
we're all on our super
highways of information
-
00:19:16
that are custom made to
tell us what we want to hear,
-
00:19:19
to affirm our own opinions.
-
00:19:20
The Bible doesn't tell
you what you want to hear.
-
00:19:22
It doesn't affirm
your own opinions.
-
00:19:24
It is there to form you,
to form you spiritually,
-
00:19:27
to get you going to a new place.
-
00:19:29
You could be Googling
right now global warming
-
00:19:33
and what will show up
on the search results,
-
00:19:36
the first couple ones
are there not because
-
00:19:39
those are the things
that are scientifically true,
-
00:19:41
but because they
know those are things
-
00:19:43
that you want to hear based
on all of your other search.
-
00:19:45
So, you can read
something on global warming
-
00:19:49
and go, "How do
idiots not see this?"
-
00:19:51
Well, because they're seeing
-
00:19:52
totally different
information that they want,
-
00:19:54
just like you're getting
information that you want
-
00:19:56
based on all of your
previous habits online.
-
00:19:59
Friends, we've got to
be smarter than this.
-
00:20:01
It doesn't work that way.
-
00:20:03
Get on the path where
the masses aren't.
-
00:20:06
That will be where
the scriptures are,
-
00:20:08
where God is, His Holy Word.
-
00:20:12
I recommend not having a goal
-
00:20:15
of reading the Bible this year.
-
00:20:17
That's a good goal. I like that.
-
00:20:18
It's wonderful. Wonderful.
-
00:20:20
But if you're new to the
Bible, your best option
-
00:20:22
is to do something like
download the Crossroads app
-
00:20:27
and do the chapter in
there every day like I do.
-
00:20:29
It's part of my Bible reading.
-
00:20:31
Or find somebody
who teaches the Bible,
-
00:20:34
who talks about
it or whatever it is,
-
00:20:37
an email that comes
you that has a Bible verse.
-
00:20:39
Don't make it huge,
just do something.
-
00:20:42
It's going to be more
than you had in 2020.,
-
00:20:45
if you're strategic
and you're wise
-
00:20:48
and you say, "I'm
getting on a different path.
-
00:20:50
I want to be a
different person."
-
00:20:51
So you're going to have
to have different stimuli.
-
00:20:54
A second, if you will,
post on that ancient path
-
00:20:59
that very few of us do is
the discipline of prayer,
-
00:21:04
talking to God.
-
00:21:07
In the Book of
Philippians 4:6, it tells us:
-
00:21:21
The Bible says do not
be anxious about anything.
-
00:21:24
"Whoa, whoa, but global --"
-
00:21:25
Don't be anxious about anything.
-
00:21:28
"Wait, wait, the economy."
-
00:21:29
Don't be anxious about it.
-
00:21:31
"But you don't know
what Joe Biden--"
-
00:21:33
Don't be anxious about anything.
-
00:21:37
This is a commandment of God:
-
00:21:39
Don't be anxious about anything.
-
00:21:40
How do we not be
anxious about anything?
-
00:21:42
Well, instead of thinking about
-
00:21:43
the things that we're
freaked out about,
-
00:21:45
researching the things
we're freaked out about,
-
00:21:48
we're supposed to
be thinking about God
-
00:21:50
and talking to God.
-
00:21:54
Here's a position you
should do more in 2021.
-
00:21:56
I don't know if you've
ever done it before.
-
00:21:58
It's the position of prayer,
-
00:22:01
the position of humility,
-
00:22:04
getting on your
knees before God.
-
00:22:08
It's the place of humility.
-
00:22:10
When you're on your
knees, you recognize that,
-
00:22:13
"You are more powerful.
You're above me.
-
00:22:15
I'm lowering myself
before You physically
-
00:22:18
because I am lower
than You, God, spiritually
-
00:22:21
and mentally and
emotionally and in everything.
-
00:22:25
I am lower and beyond You."
-
00:22:27
When you get on your knees,
-
00:22:28
it puts you in a posture
where you should be
-
00:22:30
in the cosmos, which
is underneath God.
-
00:22:33
You make your
thanksgiving known to Him,
-
00:22:35
you tell Him what
you're thankful for,
-
00:22:37
you tell Him how good He is
-
00:22:39
and you ask Him for things.
-
00:22:42
There was a time for me where
-
00:22:44
I didn't want to ask
God for anything.
-
00:22:46
I thought that God would
get sick of hearing my voice.
-
00:22:49
Do you realize
how twisted that is?
-
00:22:51
Any parent loves to hear the
sound of their child's voice.
-
00:22:56
God never tires of
of hearing your voice.
-
00:22:59
Some of us think that He does.
-
00:23:00
Others of us think
that God only has
-
00:23:02
so many yeses He's
going to give to us in our life.
-
00:23:04
And he's not going to
go, "Whoa, wait a minute.
-
00:23:06
You're asking for
that. Whoo, no.
-
00:23:09
Because I said yes to
something for you a year ago
-
00:23:11
and man, you're not due yet."
-
00:23:14
That's so sick.
-
00:23:15
God is the only entity
who can multitask.
-
00:23:18
He has a mind to take
in multiple data points
-
00:23:22
at the same time
listen to millions
-
00:23:24
and millions of prayers
at the same time
-
00:23:26
and respond the way He
wants at the same time.
-
00:23:30
He hears your prayer.
He wants to respond.
-
00:23:33
He's going to say yes to
the things that are right.
-
00:23:37
I used to tell people
-
00:23:40
you shouldn't be praying
for your financial success.
-
00:23:43
I don't know why, that was
stupid for me to say that.
-
00:23:45
You shouldn't be praying
only for your financial success.
-
00:23:47
But of course, if you want to be
-
00:23:49
in a different
place financially,
-
00:23:51
you darn well better
be praying about that
-
00:23:53
and working about it.
-
00:23:55
God might direct
you to a better job
-
00:23:56
or a different
account or something.
-
00:23:58
It's not that He's
going to make you
-
00:23:59
hit the lottery necessarily,
-
00:24:02
but He wants to hear from you.
-
00:24:05
He's hearing from me these days.
-
00:24:07
God, I want a
stronger Crossroads.
-
00:24:10
God, I want a more intimate
relationship with my wife.
-
00:24:14
God, I want to have
more physical capacity.
-
00:24:17
God, I want to sell more books.
-
00:24:20
God, I want to have
more opportunities
-
00:24:22
to proclaim who You are.
-
00:24:24
God, I want to have --
-
00:24:25
I want to be able to
kill an elk this year.
-
00:24:28
Go elk hunting and
actually get one this year.
-
00:24:30
He's going to be hearing
those things for me
-
00:24:32
and he wants to hear from you.
-
00:24:34
It's what those of us
who are on the path,
-
00:24:36
the ancient path
that leads to life,
-
00:24:38
we take prayer seriously.
-
00:24:41
You don't have to be on your
knees for an hour every day.
-
00:24:45
I would encourage
you not to have that goal
-
00:24:46
unless you've been doing that.
-
00:24:48
You need to start
some place though.
-
00:24:50
Start by having a five
minute conversation with God.
-
00:24:54
Start by maybe writing
and having a journal
-
00:24:56
and writing your prayer.
-
00:24:57
Do something to talk to God.
-
00:25:01
The third thing that
we don't want to do,
-
00:25:04
but you have to do
on the ancient path
-
00:25:06
towards spiritual
life is community.
-
00:25:11
You've got to be
around the right people
-
00:25:13
and it has to be predictable.
-
00:25:17
Tony Hsieh, who we
talked about earlier,
-
00:25:18
the founder of
Zappos, apparently
-
00:25:21
in his final era of his
life, he had paid friends.
-
00:25:26
He would get people who
he wanted to party with
-
00:25:29
and he would ask them
what their highest salary
-
00:25:32
to date was in their life,
-
00:25:33
and then he would
double that salary
-
00:25:36
just to have them
around him all the time
-
00:25:38
to party with him.
-
00:25:41
One of his true friends
worked with his family members
-
00:25:44
to have an intervention, it
was a failed intervention.
-
00:25:46
And this true friend said:
-
00:25:56
Do you have people
around you who are going
-
00:25:58
to say a word when you're
going the wrong direction?
-
00:26:00
Do you have people around you
-
00:26:01
who are going to
say the right word
-
00:26:02
when you're going
the right direction?
-
00:26:04
Who's encouraging you?
-
00:26:05
Who are you one
another-ing with?
-
00:26:08
There are 59 one another versus
-
00:26:10
in the New Testament
portion of the Bible
-
00:26:12
that relate to community.
-
00:26:14
Let me give you a few.
-
00:26:15
Be devoted to one
another in brotherly love.
-
00:26:19
Instruct one another.
-
00:26:21
Carry each other's burdens.
-
00:26:26
Submit to one another
out of reverence for Christ.
-
00:26:30
Forgive whatever
grievances you may have
-
00:26:33
against one another.
-
00:26:35
Offer hospitality to one
another without grumbling.
-
00:26:41
Grumbling. We've got
a nation of grumblers.
-
00:26:44
I don't know who you're
with right now watching this,
-
00:26:46
but let's all do something.
-
00:26:48
Let's all say grumble
five times. Okay?
-
00:26:51
Here we go. Grumble, grumble,
grumble, grumble, grumble.
-
00:26:55
Do it again five times.
-
00:26:56
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
-
00:26:57
You hear how that
sounds like (sound effect)?
-
00:27:01
That's us, where like --
-
00:27:02
We're a nation of
grumblers because
-
00:27:04
we're on the superhighway
where everyone thinks
-
00:27:06
it's their divine
right to grumble.
-
00:27:07
(grumbling)
-
00:27:09
"Oh, well, I don't like
-
00:27:10
what the government is
doing for the pandemic."
-
00:27:11
(grumbling) "Oh, the
economy and my boss.
-
00:27:15
What is -- they don't
know --" (grumbling)
-
00:27:18
"Oh, my kids, my
wife. (grumbling)
-
00:27:22
Joe Biden. (grumbling)
-
00:27:25
We're just grumbling,
grumbling, grumbling,
-
00:27:28
instead of one
another-ing one another.
-
00:27:31
Your life will be determined
-
00:27:34
by the people who
are closest to you
-
00:27:36
and the kind of quality
and quantity of time
-
00:27:40
that you spend with them.
-
00:27:41
It is a key
spiritual discipline,
-
00:27:44
having the right friends,
-
00:27:45
having the right community
and being with them.
-
00:27:49
In the Book of Hebrews 10:24-25,
-
00:27:52
I'm reminded that these
issues that we have
-
00:27:55
aren't modern day
American issues,
-
00:27:57
they've been issues
with people, because
-
00:27:59
people have always wanted to be
-
00:28:01
on the wide, easy path
where all the masses are going.
-
00:28:04
And the Bible has
to constantly say,
-
00:28:06
"No, come over here,
-
00:28:07
come over here
to this ancient path,
-
00:28:09
come over here to this path
-
00:28:11
where not a lot of people are,
-
00:28:12
but that actually
leads to life."
-
00:28:14
And this verse was written
-
00:28:16
to people in the first century,
-
00:28:17
people who didn't have Internet.
-
00:28:35
This verse is an
exact application
-
00:28:39
of why you should
make it a habit
-
00:28:41
to attend church every week.
-
00:28:44
It is amazing the
things that we do,
-
00:28:47
the things that
we're committed to,
-
00:28:48
churches is the one thing
for those who follow Christ
-
00:28:52
and say, "I want to
be more like God,"
-
00:28:54
that we instantaneously
just drop.
-
00:28:56
Like there's nothing
else that we go,
-
00:28:58
"Oh, I can't do that today."
-
00:28:59
We have a job, we don't go, "Oh,
-
00:29:01
I don't feel like going
to my job today."
-
00:29:04
If we have a date
like, "Oh, nah,
-
00:29:05
I'm just not in the mood
to go on my date today."
-
00:29:07
When it comes to church,
-
00:29:08
if we have any other
option, anything else,
-
00:29:10
"Oh, I just can't
-- I just can't do it.
-
00:29:12
I'll get it later."
-
00:29:14
We've given up the habit
of meeting with one another.
-
00:29:18
Church is a place of worship
-
00:29:21
where you meet with one another
-
00:29:23
and you get the Bible,
where people are praying.
-
00:29:28
It's a place where you're
sitting beside one another
-
00:29:32
and singing with one another.
-
00:29:35
Friends, come on,
come on, come on.
-
00:29:38
I want something
different for you in 2021.
-
00:29:41
I want you to be on a
different path in 2021,
-
00:29:43
and it means you have to
do things that other people
-
00:29:46
aren't going to be
able to understand
-
00:29:48
who are on the wide road
that goes to lifelessness.
-
00:29:52
You've got to get to a new place
-
00:29:54
and you've got to get
on the ancient path.
-
00:29:56
We need to do that this year.
-
00:30:01
- There are actually two
ways that you can begin
-
00:30:03
to walk down the ancient
path of Bible, prayer,
-
00:30:06
and community right now.
-
00:30:07
The first one is
through worship.
-
00:30:10
Worship is the intersection
of all those things.
-
00:30:12
It's biblical truth, sung
together as a prayer to God.
-
00:30:17
We're going to do that
in just a few moments.
-
00:30:19
But there's another way
too, and that's through giving.
-
00:30:21
It's another way to walk
down that ancient path.
-
00:30:23
It's truth about what God does
-
00:30:26
when we allow Him
to lead us financially.
-
00:30:29
We give our money together
-
00:30:31
and it's a prayerful
worship act to God.
-
00:30:35
- Yeah. If you want
to join me and Kyle,
-
00:30:37
we do that, that act of worship.
-
00:30:39
If you want to join us in that,
-
00:30:40
you can go to
Crossroads.net/give.
-
00:30:43
And there you'll
be able to find out
-
00:30:44
answers to questions
that you may have,
-
00:30:46
maybe you want to know
where is this money going?
-
00:30:48
How does it help?
What does it do?
-
00:30:50
What does God say
about generosity?
-
00:30:52
- Those are great questions.
-
00:30:53
- Yes, and you'll find all
of that at Crossroads.net.
-
00:30:55
Right now, we're
going to sing together.
-
00:30:57
We're going to have
some prayers that's just
-
00:30:59
set to music to ask
God to be first in our life.
-
00:31:02
Join us in that right now.
-
00:35:02
- You know, last
year for many of us
-
00:35:03
didn't feel like a good year.
-
00:35:06
We didn't feel good,
good things didn't happen.
-
00:35:08
And if you were
anything like me,
-
00:35:09
maybe you felt a little
stuck, in a rut actually.
-
00:35:13
And sometimes you
can go from rut to rut.
-
00:35:15
You can pull yourself
out just to get stuck again.
-
00:35:19
And we go into ruts
because we go down
-
00:35:21
the same path expecting
a different result.
-
00:35:24
But, you know, if you
want something different,
-
00:35:26
you're going to have to
do something different.
-
00:35:28
And that's why I'm
excited to share with you
-
00:35:31
something that I promise
is going to help you
-
00:35:33
do something different.
-
00:35:35
And that's a January kick start.
-
00:35:37
It is a six week
time that I want you,
-
00:35:39
and I invite you,
-
00:35:40
to watch the service
six weeks in a row.
-
00:35:43
And at the end
of it, I promise you
-
00:35:45
that you will see yourself
in a new place with God,
-
00:35:48
a place that has
more inspiration,
-
00:35:50
more encouragement
and, yes, more truth.
-
00:35:54
If that sounds
interesting to you,
-
00:35:55
I want you to go to
Crossroads.net/goals2021
-
00:35:59
or you can text
GOALS2021 to 313131.
-
00:36:05
- Here's the thing,
wouldn't it be great
-
00:36:07
if you could get to a new place
-
00:36:08
by doing one thing one time?
-
00:36:10
Wouldn't that be amazing if
-
00:36:11
one workout that
leads to a better body,
-
00:36:13
one conversation
with your spouse
-
00:36:15
that produces the
great marriage?
-
00:36:16
But that's not how it works.
-
00:36:18
It turns out the way
you get to a new place
-
00:36:21
is repetitions of the
right thing over time.
-
00:36:23
And we believe this
weekly experience
-
00:36:26
will help you get there,
because every week
-
00:36:28
we're going to give
you a shot of inspiration,
-
00:36:30
encouragement, and hope
to get you through that week,
-
00:36:33
no matter what
life throws at you.
-
00:36:35
And then the next
week, we're going to
-
00:36:36
give it to you again
and again and again.
-
00:36:39
And you're going to find
yourself in a new place.
-
00:36:41
So, like Hannah
said, I really hope
-
00:36:42
you'll join us in the
January kick start.
-
00:36:45
And I hope you get this
picture at Crossroads,
-
00:36:47
we don't want to be
talking heads who say
-
00:36:50
one thing to you, point the way,
-
00:36:51
the good stuff's up
there, hope you make it.
-
00:36:54
No, we want to be
guides who walk with you
-
00:36:57
all of the way every
day in your life.
-
00:37:00
So I don't know what needs
you might have right now.
-
00:37:02
But, man, we'd love
to help take care of you.
-
00:37:04
We'd love to help meet them,
-
00:37:06
no matter what you're
experiencing in your life.
-
00:37:08
In fact, if you want to
email me, you can do that.
-
00:37:10
Kyle.Ranson@Crossroads.net.
-
00:37:12
I'll try my best to respond
to you within 24 hours,
-
00:37:15
whatever it is.
-
00:37:16
Or you might be in a
spot where you're like,
-
00:37:18
"Kyle, I can't wait 24 hours.
-
00:37:19
I don't got that much time."
-
00:37:20
I totally get it and
we've got you covered.
-
00:37:22
Our team is ready right
now to chat with you.
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00:37:25
You can go to Crossroads.net,
click the chat button
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00:37:28
and talk to a real live
person who cares for you.
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00:37:32
If I can, I'd like
to pray for you,
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00:37:33
pray for your week
that's coming up,
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that God would lead you on
the ancient path to new life.
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Let me pray for you right now.
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God, thank You for
everyone watching right now,
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everyone engaging with us.
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00:37:44
I pray that You'd bless them,
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that Your peace
would cover them,
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that Your protection
would cover them
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no matter what
comes up this week.
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00:37:51
We don't know God,
but we know that You do.
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00:37:53
We know that hard
things might come up.
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We're asking that You'd be able
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to walk us through
them to new life. Amen.
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Thanks for being
with us this week.
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We'll see you next week.