You Have to Move to Grow

00:00:45

- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. I'm Andy.

00:00:47

I lead Crossroads Anywhere and I'm one of your pastors here.

00:00:49

Crossroads is a church that you can be a part of

00:00:51

no matter what you believe or where you're watching from.

00:00:54

In today's episode, we're going to see

00:00:55

how following Jesus is about movement,

00:00:58

and when we move,

00:00:59

we can actually get to new places in our lives.

00:01:01

And Brian may or may not have an old Jeep

00:01:03

on stage with him, but more on that later.

00:01:06

Now, last week, our church took a huge step

00:01:09

of movement towards following God

00:01:10

and sponsoring thousands of kids

00:01:12

through Compassion International.

00:01:14

Here's what happened.

00:01:17

- Last week, we gave you the opportunity to step up

00:01:20

and sponsor kids in Nicaragua.

00:01:21

It helps to enable things like clean water,

00:01:24

healthy food, medical checkups,

00:01:26

education and key life skills.

00:01:29

- If this is all -- if this is the apex of what we do

00:01:32

and we change thousands of more lives, literally change,

00:01:35

and then we go out of business, I can live with that.

00:01:37

I can live with that.

00:01:39

- You took the charge one by one

00:01:42

saying yes to joining their families.

00:01:45

Together, we sponsored over 3000 kids last weekend,

00:01:49

and that number is still growing.

00:01:52

By joining their family, we've helped change

00:01:54

the lives of children across Nicaragua.

00:01:57

Crossroads now sponsors 8866 kids.

00:02:02

8866 kids now having access to better health care.

00:02:07

8866 kids now having the education support they need

00:02:13

to develop their critical skills and increase literacy.

00:02:16

8866 kids are now surrounded by community

00:02:21

and local churches to learn the gospel

00:02:24

and that God has a better life in store for them.

00:02:27

Well done, team. Welcome to your new family.

00:02:34

- Man, I love that video because we're a church of movement.

00:02:37

Like, we don't just give excuses, we actually move.

00:02:40

Maybe you've got more questions about Crossroads,

00:02:42

like what do we do? Who are we? What do we believe?

00:02:44

You can just ask us.

00:02:46

This doesn't need to be a one way thing.

00:02:48

It can be a conversation.

00:02:49

You can chat with us any time at crossroads.net.

00:02:52

We'd love to connect with you.

00:02:53

Now we're going to start out with music

00:02:56

and we do this just to focus our attention on God,

00:02:58

to put Him first and to help us say things to Him

00:03:01

that we might not have been able to articulate on our own.

00:03:04

Think about these words, what they mean for you

00:03:06

and how God might want to move in your life today.

00:03:10

[music]

00:16:34

- Man, Lord, I just think about how good you've been to me.

00:16:39

How faithful you been to my family,

00:16:43

how loving you been, how patient you've been.

00:16:47

God, you are so worth it.

00:16:50

That's why I love worship, because it's a reminder to me

00:16:53

that you are worth my praise.

00:16:55

You are worth my affections because you are a good God,

00:16:59

You're faithful. You lead the way.

00:17:03

So, Lord, I stand right here and say I'll follow you.

00:17:07

I'll follow you wherever you have me go.

00:17:10

I pray that that's our prayer today,

00:17:12

that we learn to look toward you in our lives,

00:17:16

that we learn to move in the direction

00:17:19

that you're calling us to.

00:17:21

God, guide our lives, guide our emotions,

00:17:24

guide our steps. Amen. [music]

00:17:47

- You know, Brian Tome always talks about

00:17:50

the benefits of being outside.

00:17:51

And I get to be outside at least an hour every day

00:17:55

when I start my week, I get to dance, I get my steps in.

00:17:58

I recommend it to anybody. It's so much fun.

00:18:02

- When I first started serving for Kids' Club,

00:18:04

I thought I was just signing up

00:18:05

for community service hours, but I ended up

00:18:08

finding connection with the staff, the other volunteers

00:18:12

and especially the kids.

00:18:13

And now it's something I look forward to every Sunday.

00:18:16

- Sometimes when you just come to service,

00:18:18

you take things for granted.

00:18:19

And what I found out was how many people

00:18:22

are behind the scenes helping out

00:18:24

and how I've been able to contribute to that.

00:18:27

- When I started serving at Crossroads,

00:18:29

I thought it was going to be an experience for me

00:18:31

to learn how to do electrical work, how to do plumbing.

00:18:34

But it actually turned into finding a friend

00:18:37

here at Crossroads and it became about relationships.

00:18:41

It was labor that was in the trenches

00:18:44

but enabled me to connect with God.

00:18:48

- I found that serving here at Crossroads

00:18:50

just gives me a huge sense of purpose

00:18:52

and being able to help this community

00:18:54

spread the Word of God to people that

00:18:56

are perhaps watching this around the world.

00:18:58

It's just awesome to be able to take the skills

00:19:00

that God has blessed me with

00:19:02

and be able to give back to our community.

00:19:04

- I signed up for volunteering,

00:19:06

I felt that it was going to be maybe burdensome,

00:19:08

it was going to be long days and exhausting.

00:19:10

What I found is that it's a great opportunity

00:19:12

for me to share my gifts with my community

00:19:15

and I find myself being closer to God.

00:19:36

- There are tons of ways to serve around here.

00:19:38

Now, that video showed some of them

00:19:40

that happen around our physical sites.

00:19:42

But you can serve no matter where you are,

00:19:44

whether it's leading a group, hosting a table,

00:19:46

being a regional leader, or helping create

00:19:48

incredible experiences for kids and families

00:19:50

all over the world.

00:19:51

Just head to Crossroads.net/volunteer

00:19:54

to put your gifts, talents and experiences to work.

00:19:57

Being a part of this church has led me to

00:19:59

not just a better understanding of who I am

00:20:01

and how God has made me, but also a deeper, more meaningful

00:20:05

relationships with God and other people.

00:20:07

And I'm a better man and husband and person for it.

00:20:09

If you don't believe me or if you want

00:20:11

some of that growth for yourself,

00:20:13

you should try a cohort.

00:20:14

A cohort is a group of people who are focused

00:20:16

on movement in their life around a certain area.

00:20:18

For example, we've got one coming up,

00:20:20

it's called 21 Days to be a Better Father

00:20:23

and 21 Days to be a Less Stressed Mom.

00:20:27

Now I'm a dad and I know how rewarding,

00:20:29

but also how difficult it can be.

00:20:31

I had that experience that you might relate to

00:20:33

where you're going through the grocery store

00:20:35

and your son, who's three years old,

00:20:37

just immediately pukes all down your neck

00:20:39

and into your clothes, down your shirt.

00:20:41

It was horrible.

00:20:42

Like, we get that this is a hard thing,

00:20:44

but it's also so worthwhile.

00:20:47

So you can grow and you don't want to do this thing alone.

00:20:50

You can grow with other people

00:20:52

who want exactly what you want,

00:20:54

to be a present, strong, kind and incredible mom or dad.

00:20:57

Sign ups close this Saturday, so don't wait.

00:21:00

Head to crossroads.net/cohorts to sign up.

00:21:02

So here's a quick flashback

00:21:04

and a bit of a confession for you.

00:21:05

Now, I remember when I felt like I should start tithing

00:21:08

and, like, regularly giving God my money.

00:21:11

Now I tipped maybe a few dollars here or there

00:21:13

if the music or the message was, like, really, really good.

00:21:16

But I hadn't consistently tithed or,

00:21:19

like, invested 10% in the local church.

00:21:21

I felt that nudge and was, like,

00:21:23

"Am I really going to do this?

00:21:24

Is this really going to be a thing for me?"

00:21:26

So you know what I did? Nothing for three years.

00:21:30

And I say that as a pastor now.

00:21:32

I felt like God was nudging me to start

00:21:34

and it took me three years.

00:21:35

And you know what that three years did for me?

00:21:37

You know what it gained me? Nothing.

00:21:39

I didn't accomplish some other big financial goal

00:21:41

or anything else.

00:21:43

Now there's no guilt or obligation.

00:21:44

It's just to say that starting later

00:21:46

probably won't benefit you as much as you'd like.

00:21:49

Since I've started giving, I've seen times where money was tight

00:21:52

and thankfully times where it wasn't.

00:21:53

But through it all, I've seen God show up

00:21:55

in all kinds of ways, in my friends, in my family,

00:21:58

in my finances and every place in between.

00:22:01

If you're feeling that nudge or want to learn more,

00:22:04

you can head to Crossroads.net/give.

00:22:07

Movement takes work.

00:22:08

We don't just click a button to follow God.

00:22:10

Now I wish there was an easy button,

00:22:12

but God challenges us for a reason.

00:22:15

Coming up next is our senior pastor Brian Tome

00:22:17

with how the early church moved

00:22:19

and what we can learn from them.

00:22:44

- The X Factor.

00:22:46

We all know it when we see it, but it's hard to quantify.

00:22:49

It's what sets somebody apart from everyone else

00:22:51

and helps them succeed.

00:22:53

Every good story has an X factor

00:22:55

or else we wouldn't watch it, right?

00:22:57

James Bond, Olivia Pope, John B,

00:22:59

they all have the X Factor.

00:23:00

It could be a special talent, a way with words,

00:23:03

charisma, style or the Krabby Patty recipe,

00:23:06

and of course, the X factors themselves.

00:23:09

But what's our secret sauce?

00:23:11

When we receive Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us

00:23:14

an X factor that makes us different.

00:23:16

And Acts is the key to understanding

00:23:18

and unlocking our own X factor.

00:23:21

Today we're in the Book of Acts

00:23:22

all about the early days of the church.

00:23:24

It's a book about everyday people being changed

00:23:27

by God's power and changing the world as a result.

00:23:30

And we have access to the same life changing,

00:23:33

world changing power.

00:23:34

Today we're going to see how the Holy Spirit makes us move.

00:23:38

There's a reason the book is called Acts and not Thoughts.

00:23:41

The early church didn't just sit around

00:23:43

and talk about what to do, they actually moved.

00:23:45

They went to new places physically and spiritually

00:23:48

that weren't possible on their own.

00:23:50

And that movement is still continuing today

00:23:52

through the church.

00:23:53

When we have the Holy Spirit,

00:23:55

we unlock the X factor of movement.

00:24:05

[music - I Need a Ghost by Brandon Lake]

00:27:36

- Rock and roll on a Sunday morning. Oh.

00:27:42

Restored Jeep chassis on a church stage.

00:27:45

God bless America. Oh, my gosh.

00:27:48

How good is this? I have -- I have right here,

00:27:51

this has been a project that I have been working on

00:27:54

for, oh, about 15 months or so.

00:27:58

This represents a -- this is a 1978 Jeep CJ7.

00:28:03

And believe it or not, as I've worked on this

00:28:06

over the last 15 or so months, I've thought a lot

00:28:09

about things in the spiritual realm.

00:28:11

There's been a lot of parallels to it

00:28:13

and a lot of parallels to what I'm going to talk about

00:28:16

this weekend, today, as we end our series in the Book of Acts.

00:28:22

Let me pray before we go any further. All right.

00:28:25

Lord, I'm thankful for all you've given to us,

00:28:28

all you've done for us.

00:28:29

And I'm asking you to give something else to us.

00:28:31

Can you do something more for us today?

00:28:33

We came here today on a beautiful day

00:28:35

because we want to understand you better

00:28:38

and we want to live better.

00:28:42

We want to go in your direction.

00:28:43

Help me to fulfill those purposes.

00:28:46

And thank you, God, for the example you've given us.

00:28:48

And I pray these things according to the character

00:28:51

and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:28:55

So we're ending our series today.

00:28:58

We've been spending several weeks in the Book of Acts,

00:29:01

and I wish we could keep going because it's really just

00:29:05

a powerful, great, great, great, great, great book.

00:29:08

It's very important to understand

00:29:10

it's called The Book of Acts.

00:29:13

It's not the book of thoughts,

00:29:14

it's not the book of intentions

00:29:17

and it's not the book of spirituality.

00:29:19

It's not the book of spiritual feelings.

00:29:21

It's not the book of beliefs.

00:29:23

It's the Book of Acts.

00:29:26

It is a book that is meant to get you moving.

00:29:30

This thing, as good as it may look

00:29:33

to the eye of the person who likes --

00:29:35

who liked power mechanics in high school.

00:29:37

I don't think they have power mechanic classes anymore.

00:29:40

So, so sorry.

00:29:41

One of the many things that are broken in America.

00:29:44

Bring back shop class. Bring back power mechanics.

00:29:50

Where was I going? Where was I going?

00:29:52

I'm sorry. Sorry. Getting off on a rant.

00:29:54

I'm getting more excited about power mechanics

00:29:56

than I am about Jesus.

00:29:57

That's probably not a good idea. No, it is.

00:30:00

One of the things about this thing that's meant,

00:30:04

it's meant to move, it's meant to go some place.

00:30:08

I hope that you came in here today

00:30:10

and we're going to give you thoughts,

00:30:12

we're going to give you some things that you can believe.

00:30:14

We're going to give you some things you may intend.

00:30:16

But make no mistake about it,

00:30:18

you're here today so that outside of here, you move,

00:30:22

you get going in a new direction,

00:30:25

you start moving some place in your life.

00:30:27

I can't talk about the Book of Acts

00:30:29

without the most pivotal figure in the Book of Acts.

00:30:34

- Who is? - Paul.

00:30:37

- I told you last week, Jesus is always the answer.

00:30:40

Jesus is always the answer.

00:30:42

I don't know -- Jesus, in church,

00:30:45

Jesus is always the answer.

00:30:46

But if you didn't say Jesus, it would have been Paul.

00:30:49

Yes, we're going to look at Paul.

00:30:50

Paul, also known as Saul.

00:30:52

Saul was his, basically, his Hebrew name.

00:30:55

He comes to know Jesus and he takes on

00:30:58

his Greek iteration of his name, which is Paul.

00:31:00

So Paul, Saul, same thing.

00:31:02

And I was thinking about this, preparing for this.

00:31:04

I don't think that I've ever given a talk on his life

00:31:09

and his conversion in 28 years, long, long overdue.

00:31:12

So this is a first.

00:31:14

Let's read it here, Acts 9:1, here's what it says:

00:31:42

Saul/Paul is a -- he's a -- he's a hero amongst Judaism.

00:31:49

He is a Jew of Jews.

00:31:50

He has the entire Old Testament memorized, all of it.

00:31:56

He does things that other people aren't willing to do.

00:31:59

He is very, very devoted to his religion.

00:32:01

So devoted that when this rabbi comes along

00:32:04

saying that He's actually the Messiah,

00:32:06

He's the Savior that's been prophesied about, that's Jesus.

00:32:10

And then when He goes away, when He gets crucified

00:32:14

and goes away, all of these people who are following Him,

00:32:19

their movement gets very, very powerful.

00:32:22

I heard an enlightened intellectual

00:32:25

from a college university, say on PBS some time ago.

00:32:29

Whenever there's a special on PBS or something like that,

00:32:31

not that anyone watches PBS or NBC or CBS

00:32:34

or ABC any longer, but back in my day,

00:32:37

we used to watch something that had commercials except for PBS.

00:32:39

It was the only good thing about PBS back then.

00:32:41

No, there was a lot of good things about it.

00:32:43

It was wonderful.

00:32:44

But they had -- they never when they would do

00:32:46

a series on Jesus, it was never:

00:32:48

And here's what the Bible says Jesus is, so that's who He is.

00:32:51

It was always find some enlightened person out there

00:32:53

that could make you doubt the Bible.

00:32:55

And one of these people I remember said, he said,

00:32:58

"Jesus figures or Messiah or Christ figures

00:33:01

were a dime a dozen in the first century."

00:33:04

And he's right, there were a lot of them.

00:33:07

And you don't know any of their names.

00:33:10

And he probably didn't even know many of their names either.

00:33:13

Why is that? It's because when that person died,

00:33:15

they weren't God, they died. There was nothing there.

00:33:17

But when Jesus dies, as we looked at this,

00:33:21

He dies and Holy Spirit comes inside of people

00:33:26

and starts empowering people.

00:33:29

As people are empowered and the movement of God moves on,

00:33:34

I mean, Jesus's words only build steam because

00:33:36

the ghost, the Holy Spirit comes on people, starts moving,

00:33:40

Paul and established Judaism are threaten.

00:33:42

And Paul is going around killing people.

00:33:44

He's overseeing the prosecution of people.

00:33:46

He was present when the very first martyr

00:33:48

is stoned to death, which is Stephen.

00:33:52

And that's what's going on here.

00:33:54

Let's keep going here. Verse three.

00:34:25

God starts to talk to him,

00:34:29

he becomes blind, knocked down to the ground.

00:34:32

And as he's hearing these voice from heaven, he says,

00:34:34

"Lord, Lord," he knows this is God.

00:34:36

"Lord, Lord," he assumes this is God.

00:34:38

The other people with him, they're not seeing anything.

00:34:40

They're not being knocked to the the ground,

00:34:42

but they're hearing this voice that's audible.

00:34:45

And Jesus says, "Stop persecuting me."

00:34:50

Now, is it Jesus speaking?

00:34:52

Yes. We just believe the Bible, it says Jesus. Yes. Yes.

00:34:55

But I think another way to look at this, too,

00:34:57

is one time Jesus is asked who you are.

00:34:59

And Jesus says, "Whenever you've seen me,

00:35:01

you've seen the Father. I and the father are one."

00:35:04

So when Jesus is here, the Father is here.

00:35:06

When Jesus speaks, Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Ghost speaks.

00:35:12

I believe it's probably most technically accurate that

00:35:15

the voice is being generated by the Spirit

00:35:17

because the divine presence on the world that's at work

00:35:20

is the Holy Ghost, not the presence of Jesus.

00:35:23

He's in heaven. He's resurrected.

00:35:24

The presence of God here on this earth,

00:35:27

what's happening is the Ghost.

00:35:29

So when we say God, I heard Jesus, I sensed Jesus saying,

00:35:32

we're really sensing the operation of Holy Spirit.

00:35:36

And when you're in that operation,

00:35:42

when you're going that direction, you are Jesus.

00:35:46

You are. Jesus isn't here physically.

00:35:49

He isn't here, but you and I are here.

00:35:51

We're His hands and feet.

00:35:52

That's why Jesus says, "Why are you persecuting me?"

00:35:55

Because when someone comes down on you,

00:35:58

Jesus takes it personal, "My Spirit's in that person."

00:36:00

Really deep and really important to understand on that.

00:36:05

Now, what Paul is to undergo is a word that's a dirty word.

00:36:09

It's a four letter word.

00:36:11

Actually, it's not four letters, it's about eight.

00:36:15

Ten, about a ten letter word.

00:36:16

It's a word we don't like anymore.

00:36:19

It's a dirty word, maybe the dirtiest word today.

00:36:21

And the dirty word is conversion.

00:36:24

Conversion, he becomes a convert.

00:36:29

I don't want to make converts.

00:36:30

We don't like this today in our, like, "No, no, no.

00:36:32

We're all good. None of us really need converted.

00:36:36

What some believe, let them believe.

00:36:38

No one needs converted."

00:36:39

And me, some of us might say, "I was never converted,"

00:36:43

those who would say that I'm a believer.

00:36:45

"I was never a converted. Converted.

00:36:48

I always knew God."

00:36:50

Oh, geez. No, you didn't always know Go. No, no, no.

00:36:54

You might have always been brought up around God.

00:36:56

God might have been present in your life to some degree.

00:36:58

But there's a place, and the scripture is very clear,

00:37:01

where we are converted.

00:37:03

We are moved.

00:37:04

This is Saul's conversion story.

00:37:06

He has the entire Old Testament memorized.

00:37:09

He keeps all the laws as best as anybody can.

00:37:12

What I love when I'm working on this, this jeep,

00:37:16

I bought this.

00:37:17

I bought this jeep because it's the exact same year

00:37:21

and exact same kind, exact same engine that I had in college.

00:37:26

I had a 1978 Jeep CJ7.

00:37:29

And I fell in love with Jeeps, in large part,

00:37:33

because their advertising was amazing.

00:37:37

I graduated from high school in 1983.

00:37:41

This is the 1983 ad for a Jeep.

00:37:54

- The thrill of the wild.

00:37:56

One vehicle captures that feeling

00:37:59

with a strength and agility to master most any terrain.

00:38:03

Nothing stands in its way.

00:38:06

Jeep, CJ, like nothing you've ever driven.

00:38:10

[singing] There's a feeling you can get only in a Jeep.

00:38:17

- Oh, God bless America, man.

00:38:21

Man, that was back in the old school days

00:38:24

when you used to watch TV

00:38:25

and they had this thing called advertisements

00:38:27

would pop up like every ten minutes, like, oh, not again.

00:38:30

But then when that thing rolled, like, Oh, man, man.

00:38:33

That was back when America was awesome,

00:38:36

when you could ride a buffalo without a helmet.

00:38:39

Riding a buffalo without a helmet,

00:38:43

a blond, you're grabbing and pulling her beside you.

00:38:46

You see, you can't do those things these days.

00:38:48

You can't do that thing. Oh, it was great.

00:38:51

It captured my imagination.

00:38:53

Listen. Listen to the marketing material

00:38:56

for the Jeep brand, check this out.

00:39:27

Yeah. Wow. Wow. Now, check this out.

00:39:30

That's very inspiring. Now check this out.

00:39:32

Watch out when I replace --

00:39:35

Sounds cheesy, but just hang with me --

00:39:36

replace Jeep with Jesus. Here we go. Well, listen.

00:40:07

Oh, man. [applause]

00:40:09

I tell you what we need to do,

00:40:11

we need to get a brand campaign going for Jesus

00:40:14

with Jesus riding a buffalo.

00:40:16

That's what we need,

00:40:17

Jesus riding a buffalo without a helmet.

00:40:22

That would be great.

00:40:23

Now, Paul, Paul, he got converted.

00:40:29

Back to Paul. Enough Jeeps. We'll got to Jeeps later.

00:40:31

Paul got converted.

00:40:35

This Jeep -- this jeep had zero help, unless I came along.

00:40:42

It was parked for ten years.

00:40:44

Frame was rotted out entirely.

00:40:47

Engine hadn't been run for how long, engine was shot.

00:40:50

My hands have been over every inch of this.

00:40:53

The frame has been rewelded by me

00:40:58

and some friends at Crossroads.

00:40:59

They've become my friends through this project.

00:41:01

Every lifter, every crankshaft, of which there's only one,

00:41:05

every piston, every everything is --

00:41:08

my hands have been on it,

00:41:09

reinstalling it, getting it done.

00:41:11

In every gear, every synchro gear, every drive shaft,

00:41:14

which I realize is now put on backwards. [laughter]

00:41:17

Every, every, every everything I've had my hands on.

00:41:20

And here's the thing, this Jeep has no hope

00:41:24

unless somebody converts it from a rust bucket

00:41:28

to being useful.

00:41:29

The Bible teaches that you and I have no hope

00:41:34

unless we get converted.

00:41:37

Converted to being about myself, for myself,

00:41:42

being in the family of God.

00:41:44

See, many of us,

00:41:45

we don't identify the Apostle Paul's story

00:41:47

because we really believe that we came to God,

00:41:50

He just gave us a new coat of wax.

00:41:53

Just kind of polished me up a little bit.

00:41:55

No, before we come, we are broken.

00:41:58

We are broken. We are immobile.

00:42:00

We're not going the places we can go.

00:42:01

We're not doing the things that we're actually designed to do.

00:42:04

One of the things I'm going to do this summer

00:42:06

is a bunch of reflection and reading on

00:42:09

reformations revivals and awakenings.

00:42:11

There's different things about all three of those.

00:42:13

And I'll talk more about this weeks and months ahead.

00:42:17

But basically I hear a lot of people talking about revival,

00:42:19

revival, revival. Revival is great.

00:42:21

Revival is wonderful, revival.

00:42:24

I want to get revived. All of us do.

00:42:26

Revival is when something happens inside of me

00:42:29

and I'm revived, my faith becomes fresh.

00:42:32

In many ways we want to offer, hopefully,

00:42:34

some sort of revival every week, and we want to try

00:42:36

to revive our spirits and get us kind of juiced up

00:42:39

to go about the world and the life that God has for us.

00:42:42

But revival, revival is great, but what I really want

00:42:46

is awakening.

00:42:47

It's a massive difference.

00:42:49

Revivals are about people who already have faith

00:42:52

just trying to bring them back to life.

00:42:53

And that's great. That's good.

00:42:55

But what's happening here at Crossroads,

00:42:57

and really what I want is I want an awakening.

00:43:01

What about the people who need converted?

00:43:04

We've actually had an awakening happening herein our church.

00:43:07

We've had over 2000 people baptized in the last 12 months.

00:43:12

Are you freaking kidding me? That is unbelievable. Wow.

00:43:18

America has had a couple of different awakenings,

00:43:21

two great awakenings actually, where the Spirit of God

00:43:24

swept over our country and people started coming to Christ

00:43:27

who had no church background.

00:43:29

Interestingly enough, every time it happened,

00:43:32

it happens in tents.

00:43:34

Okay. I could go into deep teaching, but I'll stop.

00:43:36

Later teaching later on.

00:43:38

What I'm saying here though, all to say

00:43:40

is Paul didn't get revived, he had an awakening.

00:43:44

He had a conversion. This is hope for you.

00:43:47

Maybe you came in here today knowing that

00:43:49

there's a better future for you, but you need something more.

00:43:52

You need to be awakened. We need to be revived.

00:43:56

What happens with that?

00:43:57

What happens is we move.

00:43:59

One move as we move towards Christ.

00:44:01

This is what Paul does.

00:44:03

In Acts 9:10, once he's blinded, they lead him away

00:44:08

to some place for him to kind of heal up.

00:44:10

His eyes are open, but he's got like flakes on his eyes.

00:44:13

He can't see.

00:44:15

God comes and gives another person an assignment

00:44:18

to go to the apostle Paul, not the apostle Paul then.

00:44:21

He's Saul, later on he will be the Apostle Paul,

00:44:23

will be responsible for penning

00:44:24

more the New Testament than any other person.

00:44:26

Here's what it says in nine verse ten:

00:44:37

Ananias is just a normal dude.

00:44:39

He's known as a disciple.

00:44:40

He wasn't one of the original 12 disciples.

00:44:42

Anybody who gets teaching from Jesus comes under

00:44:45

His teaching for the purpose of moving is a disciple.

00:44:49

This isn't to be confused with the high priest Ananias,

00:44:52

also not to be confused with Ananias and Sapphira,

00:44:54

also in the Book of Acts, who sell a piece of property

00:44:57

and they get struck down dead,

00:44:59

not because they didn't give it all,

00:45:00

but because they said they gave it all, they lied.

00:45:03

All they needed to do to be on God's good grace

00:45:05

is to return a tithe 10%.

00:45:07

But they said, "Hey, aren't we cool? We gave it all."

00:45:09

And they didn't. They got struck down dead for their lie.

00:45:11

Not that Ananias.

00:45:12

This is just another normal dude.

00:45:15

And he decides to go and see this guy and he doesn't like it.

00:45:19

He doesn't like the assignment. Let's read it. 9:13.

00:45:28

He's heard about the stoning of Stephen

00:45:30

and how many people are having prison sentences

00:45:34

and death because of him.

00:45:40

Ananias is going, "Wait a minute,

00:45:43

I can get bound if I'm going to him."

00:45:45

But he had already before, if you remember that verse,

00:45:47

he already said, "Here I am, Lord."

00:45:49

Key change your life as you stand up

00:45:51

and you get converted and you start going to Christ

00:45:53

and you go, "Here I am, God, here I am.

00:45:55

What do you want? What do you want?

00:45:57

Where do You need me to go?

00:45:58

Not what I want to do.

00:46:00

What do you want me to do? What are you I go."

00:46:02

And whenever I see somebody moving

00:46:05

in the direction of Christ with their actions, it's inspiring.

00:46:09

This last week. I had a event,

00:46:15

Lib and I, we needed a new washer and dryer.

00:46:18

It broke on us, so we haven't washed clothes for ten days.

00:46:22

Finally it comes, delivered.

00:46:24

I'll mention the company even though

00:46:26

I'm not getting any money from them.

00:46:27

Home Depot, they deliver it, deliver the thing,

00:46:29

just makes the story flow easier.

00:46:31

So Home Depot comes, delivers the stuff. We're excited.

00:46:34

The guys come in, they put them up.

00:46:36

Sets up. All good, good.

00:46:37

Truck goes down the driveway, starts leaving.

00:46:39

We go to put the first load in

00:46:40

and turn the dial and it doesn't work.

00:46:42

It's stuck on delicate.

00:46:43

It won't go to like normal or anything.

00:46:45

I'm like, "Ack, no laundry for ten days

00:46:48

and we're excited and now this."

00:46:49

I can't figure it out.

00:46:50

So I get on the help line with Home Depot

00:46:53

and I'm doing simultaneous texts.

00:46:55

And I'm just representing the attitude of Christ

00:46:57

as I was talking to these people.

00:46:59

I was patient and understanding and loving.

00:47:04

No, I was not. I was not.

00:47:05

I was a bit curt like, "Hey, man, come over.

00:47:08

I've been waiting for you guys. You've been delaying.

00:47:10

You came over once and you said

00:47:11

your truck was too big to get my driveway.

00:47:13

Brought another one up. It doesn't work."

00:47:15

So I'm going, we finally figured out

00:47:17

it's not going to happen,

00:47:18

they're going to reschedule for me.

00:47:19

And here's here's the text from the guy

00:47:22

who I've been texting, says this:

00:47:30

That's code word for I understand God.

00:47:33

I am for you and I'm trying to move in His direction.

00:47:36

That's what that guy is doing with his job right then.

00:47:38

And I just had said Amen.

00:47:40

Like, okay, you sent me, like, the little signal,

00:47:42

you're trying to honor God.

00:47:43

I should have, I thought about going,

00:47:45

"Blessed, what does this mean?"

00:47:47

Like, I'm curious if this guy

00:47:49

knows how to share his faith with me. Right?

00:47:51

I think he did. Pretty cool.

00:47:53

But that guy right there, he was moving,

00:47:55

I believe he was moving in the direction of Christ.

00:47:58

He was putting his heart on the line,

00:47:59

putting his faith on the line.

00:48:01

I don't know, does this Home Depot actually have

00:48:04

some sort of corporate policy that says

00:48:07

you can't mention words of faith? I don't know, maybe.

00:48:11

It didn't matter, he was going to.

00:48:12

He was engaging with his God that day in his actions.

00:48:18

Ananias goes over and he's doing his job,

00:48:21

much more high risk than the Home Depot representative

00:48:25

was doing his job.

00:48:26

He, nonetheless, he does his job and he goes to Saul,

00:48:30

afraid of his life.

00:48:32

This could be the last assignment he ever gets

00:48:34

because Saul is going to go, "A-ha!

00:48:35

You're one of those Christians.

00:48:37

I'm thankful you came to me.

00:48:38

I don't need to see to know, I got you, and now you die."

00:48:42

Here's what happens. Ananias comes and he says this:

00:49:02

He is being filled with the Holy Spirit

00:49:05

because he is going to have an assignment, Paul is,

00:49:08

to take the words of Jesus to Gentiles.

00:49:11

He has an assignment.

00:49:13

Filling of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts

00:49:16

as you go through it, it always is connected

00:49:18

with somebody who is going some place.

00:49:20

Not with somebody who wants a new spiritual experience,

00:49:23

somebody -- you might --

00:49:24

it may give you a spiritual experience.

00:49:26

It's wonderful. I love it.

00:49:27

But the filling of the Holy Spirit is there to equip you

00:49:30

to do, to act, to move, to move to Christ.

00:49:37

And the Spirit here moved Paul

00:49:40

to come to Christ to get converted.

00:49:43

Converted, not revived because he was dead. Converted.

00:49:48

In the early days of Crossroads,

00:49:50

it was actually started like this.

00:49:51

There was 11 people who were having a Bible study

00:49:53

and they read the Bible and they said,

00:49:56

"Gosh, there's a lot of stuff in here

00:49:57

that we're not experiencing in a lot of places.

00:49:59

We should just get behind starting a church.

00:50:01

We should find a senior pastor

00:50:02

that knows how to start a church."

00:50:04

And so that's how I came around.

00:50:05

I came in and started Crossroads,

00:50:07

but only because those 11 people started and they said,

00:50:10

"We've got to do something here. We gotta move."

00:50:13

And in those early days, we're meeting in a middle school,

00:50:16

Peebles' Middle School, it's since been torn down.

00:50:18

Peebles' Middle School, public school, were in there

00:50:21

and people were coming out of every place,

00:50:24

auditorium's packed. It was really exciting time.

00:50:27

We, back then we had members, like official members.

00:50:31

And then as the church grew and changed and shifted,

00:50:33

just as an organization were always adjusting things

00:50:35

for the best season the church is in.

00:50:37

But way back when we had these, like, congregational members

00:50:40

and so we said we should have a new members class.

00:50:42

So the first one was about six months

00:50:44

after Crossroads had been going.

00:50:46

And I think we, I don't know,

00:50:48

100, 200 people in this little room.

00:50:50

And front row, this guy in the front row,

00:50:54

and he's real nervous.

00:50:58

He's sitting there and his leg is going.

00:51:01

And he raised his hand at Q&A time.

00:51:03

And I said yes. And his name is Paul.

00:51:07

And Paul says, he has a bit of a stutter,

00:51:10

a bit of a speech impediment.

00:51:12

He says, "Are you -- are you -- are you saying

00:51:15

that Jesus -- Jesus is the only way?"

00:51:20

I was like -- and I basically, in a nice way, said yes.

00:51:26

And Paul and his wife Courtney got converted.

00:51:31

They left their old worldview, their old way of life

00:51:35

that was bringing -- not bringing them what they wanted,

00:51:38

and they came to Christ. They moved to Christ.

00:51:41

And Paul went on to be a very, very successful professor

00:51:44

at the University of Cincinnati.

00:51:45

And has moved on, and I'm telling this story because

00:51:47

he sent me an email last week that moved me to tears.

00:51:51

He's moved on at a university.

00:51:53

He was asking me to help pray for him because

00:51:55

he was going to be -- he's the dean of students

00:51:59

in the law department at a university.

00:52:02

And he is -- this is the picture he sent me

00:52:04

of leading a Bible study with students,

00:52:08

putting his faith out there trying to convert someone.

00:52:16

Have you ever had anything that's affected your life?

00:52:19

Have you ever, like, had a brand of clothing

00:52:21

or have you ever tasted something

00:52:23

or did you ever have an awareness

00:52:25

and you realize it changed you

00:52:26

and you needed everybody that you needed to convert people?

00:52:29

Again, I'm using this word intentionally

00:52:31

because it's a hateful word.

00:52:32

We don't like using this word,

00:52:34

but it's exactly what happened to Paul.

00:52:35

It's exactly what happened to me.

00:52:36

And if you know Jesus,

00:52:38

you know it's exactly what happened to you.

00:52:39

And when you find something, you want other people to have it.

00:52:43

And this is what happened with Ananias.

00:52:45

This is where -- this is what's going on

00:52:47

with Paul and Courtney and their family.

00:52:51

They're moving towards Christ.

00:52:53

And as we move towards Christ,

00:52:55

we actually move towards strength.

00:53:01

Verse 19. Acts 9:19.

00:53:03

So Paul hears this word. Saul hears this word.

00:53:06

It was Jesus who came to me.

00:53:08

That's the first time he puts it together.

00:53:10

It wasn't just God, it was Jesus that came to me.

00:53:13

He's understanding Holy Spirit is what's happening in me now.

00:53:16

Maybe the Holy Spirit's actually making me have these scales.

00:53:20

Holy Spirit heals him.

00:53:22

This is all processing. It says this:

00:53:25

He probably wasn't eating much because he was so freaked out

00:53:28

he was going to be blind for the rest of his life.

00:53:44

Proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

00:53:46

Proving that Jesus was the Savior.

00:53:48

See the strength there?

00:53:49

His physical strength increases with food.

00:53:54

His spiritual strength increases with the Spirit,

00:53:58

wed with movement. Movement.

00:54:02

I mean, I'm talking about putting it on the line.

00:54:04

Oh, my goodness.

00:54:06

He has opened carte blanche to go to all the synagogues

00:54:08

because he's like a high, high, high holy guy.

00:54:11

And he goes in, they're thinking he's coming here

00:54:13

to let us know the latest strategy

00:54:14

to how to find Christians and persecute them.

00:54:17

But instead he goes in and says, "Oh, by the way,

00:54:19

this Jesus, he is the Messiah. He is the Christ."

00:54:24

He goes from being the persecutor

00:54:26

to being the persecuted.

00:54:28

He actually gets stoned.

00:54:31

Not the kind you had last night, the uncomfortable kind.

00:54:37

And he knows it and he does it. Why?

00:54:42

Because he has to move in the direction

00:54:44

where Jesus is going because he knows

00:54:46

this is where spiritual strength is.

00:54:49

I think one of the reasons why we are as a church so anemic,

00:54:53

as a church, I'm talking about the holistic American church,

00:54:55

which we're all part of if you're a Christian,

00:54:57

not if you're part of Crossroads,

00:54:58

if you're a Christian.

00:54:59

The holistic American church is that we don't move very well.

00:55:04

We think a lot. We vote a lot.

00:55:08

We theorize a lot. We spiritualize a lot.

00:55:11

But generally we don't move a lot.

00:55:15

It's one of the things I think God loves about our church.

00:55:17

Last week again, 3000 --

00:55:20

3100 last time I was given the number,

00:55:23

3100 kids are fed and educated in Nicaragua now

00:55:26

because of you moved. Great, great, great.

00:55:28

That's 30% of all of our attendance last weekend,

00:55:32

which kind of bummed me out.

00:55:34

Not the 30%, but kind of bummed me out because I realized,

00:55:36

gosh, we just hit the summer slump.

00:55:38

It just it goes off a cliff in the summer.

00:55:40

Next time I'm going to do it

00:55:42

like on Christmas Eve or Easter. [laughter]

00:55:47

I'm not kidding around.

00:55:48

Like, all these CEOs, Christmas and Easter only.

00:55:51

"Yeah. Great to have you. Give.

00:55:53

Great to have you. Feed the poor.

00:55:55

Great to be in spiritual. Feed the poor."

00:55:57

I'm going to do that. That'd be fun.

00:55:58

That'd be good stuff. Good stuff.

00:56:00

But anyway, Compassion International was blown away.

00:56:02

Like 15% is awesome. 30% is, like, unparalleled.

00:56:07

That's if you and your spouse took a child

00:56:10

that would count as 50%, not 100% of your family, it's 50%.

00:56:15

And we had thousands and thousands of kids

00:56:17

that were already sponsored.

00:56:19

I just think that's the heart of God.

00:56:20

And I love being part of you and love being part of our church.

00:56:23

It's fantastic. It's great. [applause]

00:56:27

We move and we move even when things are difficult.

00:56:29

The Apostle Paul, Ananias moved when things were difficult,

00:56:32

when he was going to get persecuted.

00:56:34

Saul/Paul moved when he could get hurt.

00:56:36

He is going to go from being the persecutor

00:56:38

to the persecuted.

00:56:39

We are weak as an American church

00:56:42

because we don't move very well.

00:56:43

And then we're not -- we don't understand the dictionary.

00:56:47

Like, I hear Christians today say that they're persecuted.

00:56:53

You're not persecuted.

00:56:55

You can't say that someone got elected

00:56:57

who you don't like and call it persecution.

00:57:00

You can't. You can't say a beer has an advertising campaign

00:57:03

that you disagree with and call it persecution.

00:57:05

You can't. You can't say that.

00:57:07

You can say you don't like it.

00:57:08

Say you want to vote a different way, right?

00:57:10

No one is getting -- until we start getting thrown in jail

00:57:13

and beaten and rocks thrown at us

00:57:16

and until somebody starts getting nailed to a cross,

00:57:18

nobody's being persecuted.

00:57:20

We're a bunch of weak weenie boys and weenie girls.

00:57:23

"Oh, it's persecution. Oh, it's so hard to be in America.

00:57:27

Oh, it's so hard to be a follower."

00:57:29

Oh, please. Oh, please. Are you kidding me? My gosh.

00:57:34

What did we think on top of that?

00:57:37

Are we up for the call of Christ

00:57:39

or are we up for the call of ease?

00:57:42

Ananias isn't up for a call of ease.

00:57:44

Ananias is up for the call of Christ.

00:57:46

Paul isn't up for a life of ease,

00:57:47

he's up for the call of Christ.

00:57:49

And you have to figure out how much the Spirit you want,

00:57:52

because the more the spirit you get,

00:57:53

the more you will go outside of yourself

00:57:55

into areas of discomfort,

00:57:57

The more you will put your faith on the line.

00:57:59

Not the more annoying you'll be.

00:58:01

No, you've got to be wise about it,

00:58:03

but you're going to move. You're going to try to get engaged.

00:58:09

Some of us are seekers and we wear the seeker badge,

00:58:12

badge of seekers, we're great.

00:58:14

Here's the point of being a seeker.

00:58:16

Point of being a seeker is so you can find.

00:58:19

And you find so you can grab on to something and move.

00:58:25

Some of us are like perpetual baby birds.

00:58:29

[mumbling]

00:58:33

Why does a baby bird eat?

00:58:34

A baby bird eats so it can fly away.

00:58:39

It doesn't eat. "I love eating. I love coming to church.

00:58:42

I love reading the Bible. I love it. I love it."

00:58:46

We do it so we can move, so we can fly.

00:58:51

What is the point of education?

00:58:52

Shout out to all of our great teachers at Crossroads.

00:58:55

Great teachers, all great teachers know,

00:58:57

all good teachers know the why.

00:58:59

Why do you need an education?

00:59:02

I'm going to get real crass. Why do you need it?

00:59:04

You need just enough education to...? Make -- - Jesus.

00:59:07

- Make -- Jesus.

00:59:19

Ah, somebody hears what I'm saying.

00:59:22

You need just enough education to make money.

00:59:32

Just enough education to get a job so that you make money.

00:59:38

You ever met somebody who's in her 30s

00:59:40

and has a PhD and hasn't had a job yet?

00:59:42

It's a sad thing, like talk about --

00:59:45

They really thought that the point was to just keep going.

00:59:48

And then eventually there's no more letters after your name

00:59:51

and you're like, I guess I just got to go teach

00:59:55

other people who don't know how to get a job too,

00:59:57

and just hope that that's the thing." [laughter]

01:00:02

This is what Christians are -- not all PhDs aren't.

01:00:04

God loves PhDs. [laughter]

01:00:09

That's how many people in churches are right now,

01:00:12

want more learning.

01:00:13

"Crossroads isn't teaching me. Teach me."

01:00:15

Let me tell you, you know enough right now.

01:00:18

You know, as soon as there's something

01:00:20

you know that you're not doing,

01:00:21

God doesn't have to give you anything else.

01:00:23

It's the Book of Acts, not the book of thoughts,

01:00:26

not the book of teachings, not the book of information,

01:00:28

not the book of spiritual knowledge.

01:00:30

The Book of Acts. God wants you to act.

01:00:32

He wants to move.

01:00:33

Paul stayed with the disciples for a few days.

01:00:35

He's like, "Hey, got it, got it, got it.

01:00:37

I'm going. I'm going. I'm going, I'm going."

01:00:39

Someone's like, "Well, what's the next class on

01:00:41

the one I can figure out?"

01:00:43

"Well, why don't Crossroads offer classes on?"

01:00:46

I like classes, been to class.

01:00:49

I like teaching you, a big part of my job.

01:00:52

I'm glad I do. I want to teach.

01:00:53

But just be really clear, it's so that we act.

01:00:56

It's so that we move. It's so that we go some place.

01:00:59

Move towards action.

01:01:01

Acts 20:22:

01:01:15

He says, "And I'm going, I'm going.

01:01:18

I'm going to act and I'm going.

01:01:20

And it's going to be hard. It's going to be difficult."

01:01:23

What is the point of knowing Christ,

01:01:25

of the Spirit coming in us,

01:01:27

if we're not going to do something about the Spirit?

01:01:30

What is it?

01:01:31

That's why that volunteering thing is so important to us.

01:01:36

That Home Depot guy was volunteering his time,

01:01:39

sharing his faith in a way.

01:01:41

Paul is volunteering his time as he shares

01:01:45

at his university in a Bible study

01:01:48

you can opt into if you want.

01:01:51

We have people in our room.

01:01:53

We have an inclusion room and our Kids' Club place.

01:01:56

Now, sorry, I don't mean to be a trigger word

01:01:58

for political, it's not a political trigger word.

01:02:01

Believe it or not, we at Crossroads,

01:02:02

we want to include people.

01:02:07

Yes, we want to include people, includes we want

01:02:09

to include children who have special needs

01:02:12

and they require high volunteer intensive work,

01:02:15

like, one on one or one on two.

01:02:19

The size of our church is one about the size of our church.

01:02:22

A lot of families have children with special needs

01:02:24

can't go to church because their education system,

01:02:27

their Sunday school, isn't equipped

01:02:28

to have enough volunteers to to build into them.

01:02:30

It's one of the things I love about our church.

01:02:32

Why do those volunteers do that?

01:02:35

Maybe they do because they see the potential in that child.

01:02:37

Why do I volunteer at Man Camp and Couples Camp?

01:02:39

I don't get paid for it. I don't get an honorarium fee for it.

01:02:42

In fact, nobody in the band, no one's ever spoken

01:02:44

at Woman Camp, Man Camp, Man Camp ever does.

01:02:46

We volunteer a time there. Why would I do that?

01:02:48

I would do that because for the same reason

01:02:50

why someone might volunteer their time in a parking lot

01:02:53

or in Kids' Club, because you say

01:02:55

maybe the next Mother Teresa is here.

01:02:58

Billy Graham had a Sunday school teacher.

01:03:01

Maybe. Maybe I'm parking right now somebody

01:03:04

who's going to come to Christ under the wisdom of God

01:03:07

is going to cure cancer.

01:03:09

We have that hope, and even if we don't, we move that way

01:03:12

because that's what Jesus does. That's where He moves.

01:03:16

Now, the point of this project,

01:03:18

which has been wonderful for me, getting my hands in it,

01:03:21

thinking about the ramifications of this,

01:03:23

because I've thought many times actually

01:03:25

it's great because every problem on this Jeep

01:03:29

can be solved with the right information

01:03:31

and the right amount of money.

01:03:33

Every problem gets solved

01:03:34

and can be solved really pretty quickly.

01:03:36

I've thought, "Man, Lord, I wish people were that simple."

01:03:40

Like, my problems, your problems, it's not like

01:03:42

the right fix and the right amount of money. It's deep.

01:03:44

But these things, no matter what it is, it can be fixed.

01:03:47

But what's what's the point of this

01:03:48

if it is just a project to work on?

01:03:51

Let me hook it up here just make sure everything is good.

01:03:54

We'll see. I've only started this thing --

01:03:57

I was counting up earlier, I think six times.

01:04:01

I've only started.

01:04:02

Let me make sure I've got my battery hooked up.

01:04:04

I've got my electronic ignition there.

01:04:08

There's my little -- Okay.

01:04:09

Got to come over here where the carburetor is.

01:04:11

As beautiful as this looks right now, at least it does to me,

01:04:14

because I understand what I'm looking at.

01:04:15

The next step is

01:04:16

I'm going to get the body on and all that stuff.

01:04:18

But I couldn't I couldn't put the body on.

01:04:20

I'm not dealing with the nice paint.

01:04:21

I'm not doing that until I understand the guts of it work.

01:04:24

All this goes, just like us, God doesn't start dealing

01:04:27

with our fine theology or some of the stuff

01:04:30

on our outward stuff until He knows will this person move?

01:04:34

Does this person have the capacity?

01:04:35

It's kind of nerve wracking just to make sure it does.

01:04:38

Let's see.

01:04:40

[engine starts]

01:05:06

Wow. Wow. Oh, that's satisfying.

01:05:10

Oh, that's so satisfying. This vehicle is meant to move.

01:05:15

Let me share with you the last verse in Acts.

01:05:17

Last verse. Last verse. End of Paul's life.

01:05:20

He's an old man. People are coming to him.

01:05:22

Here's the very end of the Book of Acts.

01:05:40

And that's it. It's like a really awkward end.

01:05:44

Like, shouldn't it be like with all boldness

01:05:47

and without hindrance. The end.

01:05:50

Or like, all boldness and all hindrance

01:05:52

and all great glory to Him who has been before all things

01:05:56

and all throughout all things or all things.

01:05:59

And the move of God continued on.

01:06:02

But it's like it just stops. Why is that?

01:06:05

Because the Book of Acts is still being written right now.

01:06:09

It's still being written right now and I want to be in it.

01:06:13

Do you want to be in it?

01:06:14

Right now in heaven The Book of Acts is still being written.

01:06:17

Right now the body of Christ is still moving.

01:06:21

It's the greatest movement in the history of all that isl

01:06:23

Every hospital that's ever come about in American history,

01:06:26

at least any one that hasn't come about in the last --

01:06:28

before the last 50 years, all of them were by Christians.

01:06:31

That's why I called Saint this and Saint that,

01:06:33

every orphanage because people said, "I've been --

01:06:39

I've been out in the cold and God adopted me.

01:06:41

We need to have a heart for the children."

01:06:43

Every every relief organization I've ever known

01:06:45

has been started, World vision, Compassion International,

01:06:48

Feed The Children, all of them.

01:06:50

All of them Christian roots.

01:06:52

Public education, all believers who started it

01:06:54

because the awakening, one of the first American awakenings

01:06:57

went through America and part of the outpouring of that

01:06:59

is people wanting to read the Bible.

01:07:01

And they said, "Hey, we need to start teaching kids

01:07:03

to read in a systematic way.

01:07:05

Let's have a school that everybody can go to."

01:07:07

We started education.

01:07:09

If you look at the beginning of all the Ivy League schools,

01:07:11

Yale, Princeton, Harvard,

01:07:13

they were all started for pastors.

01:07:16

They were pastors of divinity school.

01:07:18

These are, this is in our heritage to say, our,

01:07:21

I don't mean America now, I mean as Christians

01:07:23

to say you're meant to be on a movement.

01:07:26

You are meant to act. You're not meant to think.

01:07:29

You're not meant to believe.

01:07:30

You're not meant to spiritually feel.

01:07:31

You have all those things only to the degree that you move

01:07:36

to be a part of the greatest endeavor

01:07:38

that's ever happened on the earth,

01:07:41

that is the building of God's church.

01:07:43

And how does it happen?

01:07:44

It happens through acts

01:07:47

of people like you and people like me.

01:07:50

That's how important you are to God.

01:07:57

God, you are good to include us

01:07:59

and you are good to be patient with us when we drop the ball.

01:08:03

But Lord, we want to pick it up.

01:08:05

We want to follow you any way we can.

01:08:06

And we thank you.

01:08:07

Thank you, God, for giving us this thing called the Spirit

01:08:11

to take us to a new place.

01:08:12

Thank you, God, for taking me to a new place.

01:08:15

You are very, very kind, and I thank you for it.

01:08:18

In your name, I pray, Jesus. Amen.

01:08:21

- Hey, thanks so much for watching.

01:08:23

And no matter where you're watching from,

01:08:24

you can connect with other people

01:08:26

that are all a part of Crossroads.

01:08:27

Just this week, I've talked with people from Australia

01:08:30

and Alabama, Indiana and India

01:08:32

and lots of places in between.

01:08:33

Hey, special shout out to Pandu.

01:08:35

We hope you can make it to the Anywhere Weekend, brother.

01:08:37

And if you want to join us at the Anywhere Weekend,

01:08:40

we're bringing in hundreds of people in

01:08:41

from all over the world to host for

01:08:43

a very, very special weekend for our Anywhere community.

01:08:46

This Sunday, we actually have an event

01:08:47

for all of us to connect.

01:08:49

Because we're very creative, we call it a connect event.

01:08:51

If you live near a Crossroads location,

01:08:53

you can just head to crossroads.net/sites

01:08:55

to find all the details.

01:08:56

Or if you don't, you can join us on Zoom

01:08:58

right after this today at noon Eastern time to get connected.

01:09:02

Just head to Crossroads.net/anywhere

01:09:04

and click Connect Event on the right hand side

01:09:06

ad we'll see you soon.

01:09:07

Now, next week on Crossroads, we're talking all about wisdom.

01:09:11

Not the kind of wisdom that TikTok offers,

01:09:13

but real, lasting biblical wisdom.

01:09:15

What is it and how do we get it?

01:09:17

What makes godly wisdom

01:09:18

different from conventional wisdom?

01:09:20

Join us next week to find out.

Recent Series