You’re Meant For More | Heroes Week 1

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You were created for greatness.

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There's a hero hiding somewhere inside of you.

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At some point in your life you truly believed that,

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that's because it's true.

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God made you to be great

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and He has a plan for you to be a hero

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on a team of heroes.

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Come, find the path to your greatness.

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- Hey, welcome to week one of The Journey.

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My name is Kyle. This is Crossroads.

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We believe that you were born for adventure

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and we exist

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to guide and equip you on that adventure.

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Now question, right off the bat:

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Do you want to be a hero?

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I'm thinking of the song in Frozen, you know the one

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where it's like do you want to build a snowman

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or whatever?

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Anyway, the point is

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you were designed for greatness.

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The world says there's a path to get there.

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There's a way that you get there,

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things you should do to get to greatness.

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Jesus has a different path.

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Now today, our senior pastor, Brian Tome,

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is going to be unpacking all of that for us.

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Spoiler alert: the way to greatness is not up,

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it's about going down.

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- They want you to behave, to settle in, settle down,

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and dear God, not make any waves.

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They want you to be average

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and build a nice, sensible house on Normal Street.

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They want you to stay inside, plugged in

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and numbed out on your digital pixel slab.

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They want you to dream small, think tiny,

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and most of all, behave yourself.

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They want to know your place and stay there.

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But you weren't born for average.

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You weren't made for settling.

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You weren't created

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to watch other people go on adventures,

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wait for other people to jump into action

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and sit by and consume until you die.

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You were created to make waves and walk on them.

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You were born to find the road to greatness

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and travel every curve on it.

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This is The Journey there: The Path to Greatness.

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It's not what you've been told.

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There are five forks in the road,

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five distinct choices you must make.

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This Journey will walk you to each.

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The choice will be yours.

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- No matter who you are,

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no matter what you've done or not done,

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you're meant for more.

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You can be great, you can be heroic.

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One of the more reluctant heroes in our time

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is the great Shrek. Remember Shrek?

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Come along now, Donkey.

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You know, Shrek didn't want to be a hero,

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but he actually ended up being a hero.

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I use the word hero very tentatively because

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we're not talking about having our limbs blown off

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or doing something that all of the world knows about.

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In fact, when you talk to people

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who are legitimate physical heroes,

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Medal of Honor recipients,

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first responders who rushed into

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a burning building, or some such thing,

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all of them are uncomfortable with the word hero.

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They say again and again, "I was just doing my job."

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That's the thing.

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And here's the thing,

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the people who are the heroes of the faith,

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they were just doing their job, too.

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They were simply following what God wanted

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and then as a result, they ended up being heroes.

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Jesus says in the Book of Matthew 18:1, He says:

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You might think that Jesus would say,

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"Oh, whoa, whoa, what are you doing wanting to be great?

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No one should want to be great.

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It should all be equalzies.

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It should all be same fairzies,

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everyone does the same minimum amount of work

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and everyone gets exactly the same.

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He doesn't say that.

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He goes on to say, "Hey, to be great

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in the Kingdom of God,

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you have to humble yourself like a child."

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To be clear, Jesus is pro you being great,

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so long as you understand what it means

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to be a hero inside of God's eyes.

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And a hero doesn't mean being a celebrity.

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There's two different aspects there.

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Is an actor who memorizes lines at somebody else wrote

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and then they just recite them

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and they earn millions of dollars, are they a hero?

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No, they're a celebrity.

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Maybe they're a hero for some other reason,

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not because of that.

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Is a social media influencer, somebody who has

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hundreds of thousands of followers

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and makes hundreds of thousands of dollars

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endorsing products, are they a hero? No.

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They're a celebrity.

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They might be heroic in some other way,

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but that does make somebody a hero.

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If you party like a rock star, what are you?

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You're a rock star, that's all you are.

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You're a rock star. You're not a hero.

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This is really important to understand

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that many of us think that

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being well known is the goal.

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That's what it means to be great.

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That's that means to be hero.

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No, that's not true. It's not true at all.

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Heroes and great people

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can be well known,

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they can be celebrities,

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but celebrity is never the goal

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and celebrity never defines

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whether or not you are heroic.

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Jesus himself was great, He was a hero,

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and He was a celebrity,

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according to Psychology Today, it says this:

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Therefore, He has a level of celebrity

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that came with Him.

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In a moment, I'm going to talk about Jewish mothers.

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I know it sounds weird.

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It'll make much more sense after this.

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- Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee

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came up to Him with her sons,

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and kneeling before Him she asked Him for something.

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And He said to her, "What do you want?"

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She said to Him, "Say that these two sons of mine

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are to sit one at Your right hand

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and one at Your left in Your Kingdom."

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Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking.

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Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?"

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They said to Him, "We are able."

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He said to them, "You will drink my cup,

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but to sit at My right hand and at My left

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is not mine to grant.

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But it is for those for whom

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it has been prepared by My Father."

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And when the ten heard it,

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they were indignant at the two brothers.

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But Jesus called them to Him and said,

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"You know that the rulers of the gentiles

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lorded over them and their great ones

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exercise authority over them.

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It shall not be so among you.

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But whoever would be great among you

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must be your servant.

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And whoever would be first among you

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must be your slave.

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Even as the Son of Man

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came not to be served, but to serve

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and to give His life as a ransom for many."

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- It's pretty well documented

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that those who are Jewish are doing

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way above the mean, way above the average

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in terms of overall economic impact.

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The number of billionaires and millionaires

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that are in our country or in the world

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far outpaces the percentage of other nationalities.

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If you go to New York City, the amount

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of real estate that's held by the Jewish community

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is really astounding.

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I heard a speaker talk about this one time,

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and he said, "You want to know why?

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You want to know why we're so successful?'

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He said, "It's because of our Jewish mothers.

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That's why."

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I don't know that, I don't have a Jewish mother,

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but here we have in that story a Jewish mom

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is going to Jesus and saying, "Hey, my sons,

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I want them to sit on your right and on your left.

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I want them to be great." That's what great was.

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If Jesus was in heaven, He was in the Kingdom of God,

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the people closest to Him, because He is the greatest,

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would be greater than others.

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And again, you would think Jesus would say,

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"What are you talking about? No, no, no.

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You're not asking the right question."

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He doesn't say that.

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Instead, He again and again redefines

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exactly what it means to be great.

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Matthew 23:11, He says:

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He wants us to be great, it's just a matter of

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what form of greatness and how fast

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and how far are you going after it?

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Three things about heroes.

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Heroes are submitted.

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Heroes submit themselves to God,

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and they serve others.

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That's what it means to be submitted.

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Man, I read this amazing

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quote recently, it said this:

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Brilliant.

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OH, that's my book: Welcome to Revolution

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by Brian Tome available on Amazon right now.

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That's what God wants, He wants you to give up.

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He wants you to submit to Him.

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That's how you become great,

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because when we do that,

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we also start serving others.

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And we all know those are the folks who are heroes,

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those who have selflessly

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served other people.

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I've gone down the rabbit hole

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looking at modern day heroes, who it is

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who's gotten Medal of Recipient awards

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and that kind of thing.

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And one thing that happens again and again and again

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is they don't like to call themselves heroes.

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They are, but they don't like to call themselves heroes.

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They say things like, "I'm just doing my job."

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One person is Travis Mills.

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He was serving in Afghanistan.

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He had his legs and his arms taken off.

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He now walks around with like two kind of

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prosthetic pegs on his legs, very short,

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and he has one prosthetic arm that he can use.

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And here's what he says. He says:

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He doesn't like to be called a hero.

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He is one; doesn't like to be called one.

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You know who he says a hero is?

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He says, "The true hero,

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the only hero I know is my wife."

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Because when he came back from Afghanistan,

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as he was half the man he was before,

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physically half the man.

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He said to his bride,

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"This is probably the time for you to get out.

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You need to go off, you have a life,

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and it shouldn't be me because

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this is going to be a rough, rough go."

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He tried to release her and she said,

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"Absolutely not, staying."

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That's his hero. Why?

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Because she submitted to the relationship

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and she's serving him.

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That's who great people are.

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That's what great people do, whenever you can,

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whatever the opportunity is.

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Oh, gosh, couple months ago, I was coming into work

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and as I was coming in I saw an older Toyota car

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that was broken down the side of the road

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and there was a kid who was pushing it,

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pushing the car.

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And I've been in that situation many times,

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driven old cars and they break down.

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So, I immediately had a bit of a heart for it.

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And actually what I felt was

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if that was me, Jesus would stop from me.

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If that was me, Jesus would serve me.

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So I pulled over thinking

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I might be a little late for my meeting.

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That's OK.

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Pulled over, put my hazards on, went back.

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While I was going back, there was another guy

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in a van who was thinking the same thing.

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So now there's two guys converging on this car.

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And then started to see what was happening.

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I'm a white guy, he's a white guy,

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and we have two African-American teenagers

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that are here in this vehicle.

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I don't know if you know it or not,

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there's a lot of African- Americans who do not have

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a lot of positive interactions with white people

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in pickup trucks and vans.

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And I felt like, "Ooh, this has now gone --

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This has deeper stakes with it right now."

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We came up to these kids

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and asked them how they're doing.

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Apparently ran out of gas.

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Heart went out to them and we said,

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"OK, well just steer and we'll push you over."

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And they were kids.

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They don't know all about mechanics of a car.

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They weren't turning over where they could

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because the engine wouldn't start

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so the power steering was off.

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They just, you know, so we're trying

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to get the steering wheel turned and everything.

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We get it over, we stop.

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I said, "You guys okay?

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You guys have money for gas?" "Yes, we do."

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"Are you okay to get the gas station?

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There's one right over there,

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but I'm happy to take you if you need."

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"No, we'll get there."

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I wasn't sure they had money.

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"Are you sure you have money?

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Because I can give you money if you need some,

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if you need some gas."

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They said, "No, no, no, we're okay."

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I said, "Okay, great, great,"

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so shook their hand and off we went.

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I didn't do that because I said,

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"Hey, this is going to be a great sermon illustration

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on week one of The Journey called Heroes."

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No, I just wanted to serve somebody who was there.

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But I'll tell you this right now,

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I'm pretty sure those kids looking back

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on what we did to help them and get them going that day,

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I'm pretty sure they viewed us as heroes.

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Anybody who serves you and submits to something

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that is greater than themselves

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is a legitimate hero that we love

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and that we need in our world.

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And our world needs and our world wants

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more people like you to be great, to be heroic.

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Heroes are submitted. Heroes are connected.

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They're connected.

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No one ever becomes a hero bingeing Netflix.'

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Nobody ever becomes a hero

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having their introvert time on the couch.

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No problem bingeing Netflix,

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no problem having your introvert time on the couch,

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just understand it's not in those moments

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where you will be a hero.

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It's when you're connected with other people.

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Even the story that we're looking at right now

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with the disciples and the Jewish mother

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of James and John, they're all connected.

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They hear this, the disciples are like, "Wait a minute.

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Wait a minute, you can't be asking that."

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Because they're thinking themselves,

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"I wanted to ask that. Darn it, I didn't ask it."

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I think that's what they're thinking.

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They're upset with it.

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Like did this Jewish mother and James and John

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beat them to the punch because

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they weren't bold enough to actually ask this?

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They're seeing this and they're learning

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these things while they're connected.

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You're never going to get the next level

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unless you get connected.

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In this Journey called Heroes, there's a cap,

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there's a cap to your greatness

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that you will attain to if this is

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your isolated solo thing that you're going

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to reflect on for five or six weeks.

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You've got to get in a group.

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You've got to get around other people

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to hear other people's stories, them hear your story.

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You've got to do that.

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Heroes are always connected, for no other reason,

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if you're not connected,

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then you don't have anybody to serve,

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let alone have new insights and new passions

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and new powers.

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Jesus wants you to be great, wants you to be a hero,

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and we do that when we're connected with Him.

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He says in John 14:

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Jesus, that's a call for you to be great

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and do greater things.

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Are you preparing for that?

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Are you leaning into that?

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Do you know who you are?

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Do you know who or what are submitted to?

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On the other side of a story

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we're going to show right now,

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I'm going to talk to about what it means

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to get unlocked because we're going to hear

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how somebody is great and we need to understand

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how all of us can in kind be unlocked.

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- We'll get back to Brian in just a minute,

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but first, this entire Journey is only possible

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because of the generosity of everyday people

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just like you and just like me.

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If you're one of those generous givers to Crossroads,

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on behalf of everyone experiencing this right now,

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thank you for giving.

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Or if you want to become part of

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the community of generosity around here,

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you'll be joining thousands of people,

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my family included.

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You can do that by going to Crossroads.net/give.

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Check out this story

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of one of the heroes in our community.

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- Hey I'm Jay. I serve on the worship team

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and I play guitar on the weekends.

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I was in bands from the time I was 15

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till the time I was 30-ish.

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But I would say like that lifestyle

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of staying out in bars late, playing in bars,

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you know, drinking, partying is not super conducive to,

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you know, being a great dad or being a great husband

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or getting up in the morning, you know,

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when you're when your kid gets up

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and taking care of them.

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I definitely associate a lot of negativity

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and darkness with that kind of lifestyle.

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The direction that that was pointing my life,

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and it wasn't the direction that I wanted to go.

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So ultimately, I quit,

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sold all my gear or gave it away.

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You know, and that was it.

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But it wasn't until I kind of started

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coming to Crossroads and seeing music

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done in a different way that I started to kind of

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feel that pull again toward music.

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Our family had this incredible blessing where, like,

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basically these people showed up on our doorstep

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one day and wanted to buy our house

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and like kind of in one fell swoop

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we were out of our debt and we had a surplus.

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I had prayed to God like,

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"Hey, this is an incredible blessing.

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What do you want me to do with this money?"

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God said, like, mission trip.

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And then like the next day there was an email from,

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like, I think it was the first Go Nicaragua trip,

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so I just signed up.

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So on the way down to Nicaragua,

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I happened to be seated on the plane next to Mike.

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It turns out that he was worship leading that trip

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in Nicaragua that week.

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- Hi, my name is Mike,

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and I volunteer on the worship team.

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2016 I went on the first Go Nicaragua trip

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and I remember I was working on lyrics

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for the songs that we were going to sing.

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And Jay was sitting next to me

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and started asking me questions about the songs,

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how long I've been playing music.

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Eventually invited him to come serve on the music team.

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I think the change in Jay from when I met him

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that first time kind of seeing him step in

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to join the team, to use as gifts,

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really stepping into like the identity

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of who he is to be who God called him to be.

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- I think the reason that I was hesitant

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was that I was still just rejecting that side of myself

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and pushing it down and pushing it away.

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I came to this realization that

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God had given me this gift and these talents,

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and maybe I had just been using them the wrong way.

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God completely redeemed that musical aspect of my life.

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But I would say the biggest thing is since

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in that time period that I started serving,

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I got baptized and I was also able to baptize my wife.

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All because -- Sorry.

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All because I said yes.

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- What's up, man? - What's up?

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- Just seeing how you've grown as a follower of Jesus,

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just you have just grown exponentially

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by using your gifts to lead others in worship.

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You're always looking to build into people

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and to encourage them.

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And I just, I think it's awesome.

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Thanks, man. - Yeah.

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- That I had been -- that's a side of myself

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that I had pushed down for a long time.

00:20:04

And it really wasn't until I met you on that plane

00:20:07

that I started thinking about

00:20:09

that this could be a possibility.

00:20:11

From walking in there and having somebody

00:20:14

like Mike who was very invitational.

00:20:16

To me you model what it looks like

00:20:18

to like serve through music.

00:20:21

I never saw you say no. You always said yes.

00:20:24

That was a huge inspiration to me because

00:20:27

I was in that process of saying yes.

00:20:29

It's everything I ever dreamed of

00:20:31

when I was a young kid.

00:20:33

It's the lights, it's the fog and all that.

00:20:37

But it's really like knowing that you can be in

00:20:44

a position where you're submitting yourself to His will.

00:20:49

You know, everybody's been given

00:20:51

a unique gift by God

00:20:53

and I think if you just think about

00:20:55

what that gift is and how you can put it

00:20:58

to work for His purposes,

00:21:00

you just might be surprised

00:21:02

at what He has in store for you.

00:21:04

- Jay is a hero who's been unlocked.

00:21:08

Heroes are unlocked.

00:21:12

Joseph Campbell, who certainly coined

00:21:16

or at least made the phrase "the hero's journey"

00:21:18

very, very popular, he says this:

00:21:37

Heroes are unlocked.

00:21:39

Heroes aren't looking for the fantasy life

00:21:43

that's going to make them well known.

00:21:46

.08% of all high school football players

00:21:49

will get to the NFL.

00:21:51

.03% of all high school basketball players

00:21:54

will get to the NBA.

00:21:56

That's like nobody, that's like nothing.

00:21:57

And even those ones that are there,

00:21:59

they only last one or two years,

00:22:00

and then often times when they're done,

00:22:02

they've made bad decisions

00:22:03

and they have nothing financially to show for it.

00:22:05

They're not -- there's nothing heroic about that.

00:22:07

You can be heroic and just view your grades

00:22:11

and be in the NBA and be in the NFL,

00:22:14

but simply attaining something like that

00:22:17

doesn't mean it, doesn't make it great.

00:22:19

You've got to find out who you are.

00:22:22

You've got to unlock who you are.

00:22:24

And if you're not 6'5" and 250 pounds,

00:22:27

you're probably don't have a destiny

00:22:28

as a professional athlete in those areas.

00:22:31

But you do have a destiny in something

00:22:34

that you could be great at.

00:22:35

There is some way that God has prepared you to be great,

00:22:40

but you've got to know what that is,

00:22:42

you've got to get unlocked from it.

00:22:46

Unlocked to do it.

00:22:49

Hopefully, you've gotten one of these Journey guides,

00:22:51

or you're going to get one.

00:22:53

This is the thing that takes us through

00:22:55

this whole Journey, it's a multi prong thing.

00:23:00

I'm giving you information now.

00:23:01

We're going to try to have great creativity for you.

00:23:04

We get in groups where we can sharpen one another,

00:23:07

be connected with one another.

00:23:09

And then we also do personal reflection work

00:23:12

where we might be able to get unlocked.

00:23:14

And the very first part

00:23:16

of the first section of your guide,

00:23:18

I just want to read it for you. It says this:

00:23:21

You'll experience a full, exhilarating life

00:23:24

when you spend yourself on a worthy cause.

00:23:27

But first, you need to discover

00:23:30

what you've been given to spend.

00:23:32

This week, we'll explore the way God made you

00:23:36

and get a first taste of the bold, world-changing

00:23:40

and surprisingly joyful mission ahead of you.

00:23:45

I love that line: Joyful mission ahead, joyful.

00:23:50

Being a hero isn't an arduous thing.

00:23:53

Being great isn't painful necessarily.

00:23:58

It's joyful because it's in line with who you are.

00:24:01

I am stunned, the more I've submitted myself to God,

00:24:05

the more I've connected with other folks,

00:24:06

the more I've tried to have things inside of me

00:24:09

that I didn't even know that we're there get unlocked.

00:24:12

Or the more I've just unlocked myself from baggage

00:24:16

and tradition and bad ideas I used to have

00:24:20

and bad values I used to have or whatever it was,

00:24:23

I am stunned by what God is doing in my life

00:24:27

and has done, utterly stunned.

00:24:28

Every person who's on the path to heroism

00:24:31

or greatness is always said, "I have been stunned.

00:24:34

I would have never, ever, ever seen it coming."

00:24:37

And I haven't arrived yet, by the way.

00:24:39

I'm certainly not your model.

00:24:41

I'm in this Journey because I want more

00:24:44

and I know you do.

00:24:46

I know you want great.

00:24:47

No one wants to go to the casket

00:24:50

at the end of their life and just say,

00:24:52

"Man, well, I didn't make any huge mistakes that life."

00:24:55

No one wants to go to the casket at the end of life

00:24:57

and say, "Well, I'm really glad

00:25:00

I read the Bible every once around."

00:25:01

No one wants to go to their casket and say,

00:25:04

"Well, I got a 3.0. That's what I did."

00:25:08

You and I want to go to our casket

00:25:09

because we had a great life,

00:25:11

because our life mattered,

00:25:13

because we were submitted to God,

00:25:14

because we poured it out from the people,

00:25:16

because we were connecting with others

00:25:17

and we were unlocked to be the full version

00:25:19

of who you and I are.

00:25:21

That's what you're going to get this Journey.

00:25:23

Engage. Take it seriously.

00:25:25

God, I ask You that You would continue to teach us,

00:25:29

mold us because we want more of You

00:25:31

and we want more the life that You want for us.

00:25:34

We pray these things in your name, Jesus, Amen.

00:25:40

Hey, songs can often times drive home

00:25:43

a deeper spiritual meaning to solidify something in us.

00:25:48

That's what this one is going to do for you right now.

00:29:46

- This is a game changer.

00:29:47

The path to greatness modeled by Jesus

00:29:49

isn't about striving to get up.

00:29:51

It's about getting down.

00:29:53

Heroes use their gifts to serve.

00:29:56

Heroes use their gifts to help

00:29:58

and they don't do it alone.

00:29:59

Next week on Crossroads

00:30:00

we have an exciting episode for you.

00:30:02

And make sure you get the app.

00:30:04

It's completely free and you need it to do The Journey.

00:30:06

See you next week! Check this out!

00:30:10

- Back in November 2019, I was church hopping.

00:30:15

I went to a lot of churches.

00:30:17

I felt like I didn't belong

00:30:19

and threw my hands up in the air and said,

00:30:22

"I'm done, I'm not doing this anymore."

00:30:24

So I'm sitting at my kitchen table

00:30:26

and I had this deep longing desire

00:30:32

to be back in community.

00:30:35

We're in the middle of a pandemic.

00:30:38

What am I going to do?

00:30:39

I can't go anywhere. Church is closed.

00:30:42

I can't even go see my family members.

00:30:44

What am I going to do?

00:30:46

I'm on Facebook and a Crossroads Church ad came up,

00:30:52

it was sponsored.

00:30:53

So I clicked on the message

00:30:56

that was on the Facebook page and I listened to it.

00:31:00

And I'm like, "Oh, wow, this is pretty neat.

00:31:03

This is pretty cool."

00:31:04

I think it was in July of 2020

00:31:08

where I kind of wanted to have a little bit more,

00:31:13

to be more in community.

00:31:16

As I explored I was really mesmerized

00:31:22

just by the work of what Crossroads was doing,

00:31:26

that the church members were giving

00:31:29

and where that money was going.

00:31:31

I loved seeing that Masters of Disaster

00:31:36

went to Texas to help flooding victims,

00:31:39

Puerto Rico to capture messages,

00:31:43

when Crossroads paid medical debt.

00:31:46

I just started giving financially.

00:31:49

It's just so it really makes me feel like

00:31:52

I'm a part of the community, even though it's online.

00:31:57

It's just -- it's fantastic,

00:31:59

and I don't know how else to explain it,

00:32:03

but with thanks giving.

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