How to Produce and Get Results

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

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And we believe that God created you, me,

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and every one of us to live a life of adventure

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and to change the world for good.

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If that sounds good to you, then you're in the right place.

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Now, there are countless stories of people

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who have watched the service,

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got connected to Crossroads and to other people,

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and their lives have changed for the better.

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And that's why we're so committed

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to helping you go to the next level

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in your relationship with God.

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Now, all year long, we're diving into

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different books of the Bible to unpack

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the things that help us know God more

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and get closer to Him.

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Today we're exploring the book of Romans.

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It was written by the apostle Paul

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for the early church in Rome,

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and there are tons of things that we can learn

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that still apply to our lives today.

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Let's get started.

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- No matter if you find a parking lot or not,

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you're going to praise Him, right?

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No matter if you're dropping your kids off

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at Kids' Club and rushing here and just grabbed your coffee.

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He's worthy of our attention and our affection.

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That's what this past Thursday night was about.

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This place filled up with people coming in

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and saying, "God, I believe that something

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changes in me when I give You my attention

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and my affection, because You're good,

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because You're worthy."

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And on this stage, we sing that same song,

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louder than maybe I've ever heard it sung

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with students and people dancing in the aisle

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and people getting out, letting loose a little bit.

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And we sang it over 51 people on this stage

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that got baptized and gave their life to Jesus.

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Across all of our sites, 188 people

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here in our church got baptized Thursday night.

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And here's what they were saying.

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They were saying, "Jesus, I want to follow You.

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Jesus, I believe You're more than a man

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that just walked the earth, but I believe

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You're my Savior and my King."

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They're living out these words,

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following in line with what Jesus said.

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Listen to what He said.

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Jesus said if anyone would come after Me,

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let them deny -- let him deny himself

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and take up his cross daily and follow me.

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For whoever would save his life will lose it.

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But whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

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188 people said, "I want to put that example

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into action and go down under the water

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as death to myself and be raised back to life

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because of the surpassing greatness

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and amazement of what Jesus does for us.

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That there's a mystery to it, that when

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I release control of my own life, I find it.

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When I die to myself, my own desires,

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my own needs, I say, 'God, you can have all of me.'

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And He brings life to dead places."

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That's what this song says.

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It gives us the appropriate response that

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at one point it says, "I give my whole life

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and lay it down."

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That's us saying, "I'm going to aim for You,

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give You my attention and my affection

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because You gave your life for mine,

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I will give mine for you."

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Our response to Him.

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Lift them up Together.

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Jesus, We praise You because You're the King.

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And I want every part of me to be in line with that truth.

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I believe You're more than a story.

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I believe You're true.

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I've seen You to be true.

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I give my life to You because

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I believe You're true, more than a story.

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And because I found time and time again

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when I surrender myself,

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I found life greater than I ever imagined.

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You're the high King of heaven over all.

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I give you my voice, my attention,

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my affection, and my heart today

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because of who You are.

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I pray all this in you, Jesus. Amen.

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- This experience transformed my approach

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to my relationship with God.

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- My group of strangers became a family.

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- And I have been transformed.

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I realized that I can begin life anew.

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- These guys are my brothers.

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I can count on them and they can count on me.

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- Someone offered to pray over me,

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and I never had that happen before.

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I'm not sure what I believe about God yet,

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but I love the people I've met

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and I want to keep exploring.

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- We know that loneliness and isolation are a huge problem.

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Earlier I said that there are countless stories

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of people who got connected to other people at Crossroads,

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and that's true.

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I've met some of my best and closest friends here.

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And one of the biggest ways to grow spiritually

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is to do it alongside other people

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who are also moving towards God.

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I believe that finding the right community

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can transform your life,

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and that's why we have groups designed

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to supercharge your relationship with God

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and with other people.

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Whether it's online or in person,

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you can find a group for you at crossroads.net/groups.

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Crossroads is about making an impact

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in people's lives and around the world.

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All the money that comes in

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through generous givers like you and me

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goes right back out to change lives.

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We believe that God created the earth

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and everything in it, including us.

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So we use what God gives us in ways that honor Him.

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Now, if you're new to church and Crossroads

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and if you don't believe this right now,

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that's totally okay.

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But if you want to go deeper with God

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and follow His plan for your life, then let's talk.

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I don't even have enough time to talk about

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all the things that Crossroads is doing

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locally and globally, but to read more about

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where the money goes or why we give,

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head to Crossroads.net/give.

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Now, today, Brian is going to be talking about Romans

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and the importance it has for our lives.

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- Well, good morning all of Crossroads.

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I am excited to be with us today.

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I'm going to talk about one of

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the most crazy profound things in the Bible

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that I'm glad to talk about because

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it helps me believe it and remember it.

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It's the grace of God.

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Last week we talked about the truth that

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God can't be defined in any single sentence,

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including God is love or God is justice

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or God is wrath or whatever it is,

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because He's a multifaceted person.

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I mean, you couldn't be defined

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by a single sentence, could you?

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If there was a story in your life,

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someone couldn't just tell that one story

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and they'd get a whole pure perspective

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for who Vanessa is.

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It's a bunch of things, right?

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So with God, we tend to err on one aspect

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of His personality, the personality that

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we maybe most identify with.

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For some of us, that's His rules

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or it's His this or it's His that.

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We're honing in that aspect of God's personality

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that doesn't get talked about enough

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in modern American churches, and that is His grace.

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Now we talk about it with people

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who are outside the church

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trying to woo them into relationship with God.

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But for many of us, we need to be

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reacquainted with God's grace,

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and that's what we're going to do today.

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I'm looking forward to it.

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Let's pray about it so maybe God touches you

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in a way that just my words can't,

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but maybe His very spirit, His grace,

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does something in your heart today.

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God, I pray that that would happen,

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that You would do something in our lives

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that goes beyond my sermon preparation,

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goes beyond any of the production

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that we've done here today.

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That just gets personal,

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personal between You and every person

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sitting in a seat and whatever site

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or whatever coffee shop we're in right now.

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God, thank You for the privilege of talking

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about Your truth and Your transcendency.

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Help me to do it justice.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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So as we look at the book of Romans,

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Romans was the letter that the Apostle Paul

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gave to the church in Rome.

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And he would give these letters,

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like he did to the church in Ephesus,

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which I'm going to read from first,

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again and again and again to help

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people understand who God was.

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And the book of Romans, 16 chapters long,

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22 times grace is referenced.

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Grace is all throughout the New Testament.

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As we looked at last week

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all through the Old Testament as well.

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Let me give you one section out of the book of Ephesians.

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It says this: In Him we have redemption

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through His blood and forgiveness of our --

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That's not the right one. Sorry. Sorry.

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I've got all these things underline my Bible.

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I got the wrong one.

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Let's do another underlined section I have in it.

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I actually read this, believe it or not,

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and I actually mark it up.

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It's not just a prop.

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All right, let's try this one.

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It's Ephesians 2, actually, here we go.

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Ephesians 2:5:

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Do you believe that He's kind to you?

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He is. He's so kind, He abounds in it.

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He's rich and His grace is something He blesses us with.

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Next verse.

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If you happen to come into relationship

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with God through Jesus,

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you don't come to relationship with Him

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because you figured it out,

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because you're just a naturally spiritual person.

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You don't come in relationship with Him

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because you even said a sinner's prayer.

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You don't come into relationship with Him

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because you got baptized.

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All those things may happen and may be important,

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but you come into relationship with Him,

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if you do, because of His grace.

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We can't boast that I figured it out.

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No, His grace comes to me first.

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Let's keep going.

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There's a place for works. There is.

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I'm going to call, refer to works today as grit.

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There's grit, the thing you've just got to do,

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the thing you've got to

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put your shoulder to the millstone on,

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the thing that you've got to expend effort in and sweat.

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And then there's grace that you don't work for,

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that you don't do anything about.

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There's grace and there's grit.

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And many of us err on the grit side.

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And we'll have messages here Crossroads

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where it's appropriate to get into

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the things we need to do and grit, all that stuff.

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But grit only has a chance of taking root

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if you've understood

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and have received the grace of God.

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The whole letter of Romans is basically a letter of grace.

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And there's a guy I know who got given a letter,

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I'm going to show it to you in a moment,

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which is a letter of grace.

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Joe is a guy I've known for a while,

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and yet I didn't know him.

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Because just like God, he's got facets

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to his personality and background I wasn't aware of.

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But I think we're all going to get

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a better understanding of grace by hearing his story.

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- I think God's calling me to give my story away

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so that it can be used broader by Him for people.

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I struggled in my young adulthood with some anger,

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and I think it stemmed in large part

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from fear of abandonment.

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I had grown up in a house where my parents were divorced.

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My father and I didn't have the greatest

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of relationships and he wasn't present.

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In my early 20s, I met and entered into a relationship.

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She got pregnant, unexpected,

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and a decision was made for her to have an abortion.

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Not only did it not set well with me,

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but I was not kind to her.

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I'd lack patience. I would strike out verbally.

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So I think I was just dealing with

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some anger issues of my own,

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some abandonment issues, a lot of things

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that I just didn't recognize in my youth

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that came out in very unhealthy ways

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to the people around me.

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That was a very difficult, difficult period

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that has stayed with me,

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but stayed with me in a significant way.

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And then I decided to join the Navy

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because I really didn't have direction.

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I didn't know what I wanted to do.

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And in 1990, I met the woman

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that would become my first wife.

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We had been living on the military base,

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in military base housing, and for reasons

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mostly focused on our children's education,

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I used government credit cards that

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I did not have authorization to use for our life

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and our life as we were living it.

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That ultimately resulted in me

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seeing an NCIS agent and charges of larceny

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and conduct unbecoming being brought against me.

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And I was found guilty.

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My commanding officer,

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who was my most superior officer above me,

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he looked at me and he said,

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"Everything around me says

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to kick you out of the military.

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But I believe there's something to be redeemed in you,

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and I'm not going to do that."

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So I retire from the Navy in December of 2003.

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My marriage was ending at that time.

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And I drove from San Diego to Cincinnati.

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When I came around the Cut in the Hill

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I felt God say to me, "I brought you back

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to this place because this is

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where you're going to have wholeness."

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Because I was a wreck.

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It felt like I was about to have a new beginning.

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One of the most significant things that happened

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was in February of '05, I met my now wife, Amanda.

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When we were married,

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He put on her heart to have a child.

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So we talked and prayed and decided that we would.

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And that began in November of 2013.

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We got to the summer of 2015

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and she still wasn't pregnant.

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I was angry. I got angry with God.

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I was carrying with me this vision of a punishing God.

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And I believed that because I didn't lend voice

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to an abortion that happened,

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I believed He was punishing me

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and that He wasn't going to allow me to have a child.

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So I spent the better part of the month of July in 2015

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kind of shaking my fist at God and just saying,

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"Look, I believe You are who You say you are.

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I believe Your promises.

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And I know that we heard You right.

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And why do You keep doing this to me?

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Why are You punishing me like this?

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Why are You not letting me have

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the thing that you promised me?"

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I just felt Him say, "I've got work to do

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in you before you can have the promise."

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I kind of settled in at that time to

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what is it that God wants me to grow

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in relationship with Him?

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And I think one of the things that I came to

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was that He had forgiven me for my choices in the past.

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He had forgiven me for my brokenness

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and that I needed to let go of things of the past

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that were really serving as now

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a barrier to my relationship with Him.

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God wasn't punishing me.

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He wasn't keeping something from me.

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Things were going to happen in His time, not my time.

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Um, and then ultimately, in November of 2015,

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we learned that Amanda was pregnant.

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- Well, Jared, we actually --

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We have a little gift for you. Take a moment and read it.

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- You sons of bitches.

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- Would you read the letter out loud?

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- I probably don't say this often enough,

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but it's important for you to know

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that you are an incredible husband and father.

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It's obvious to all who meet you

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that God created you to be a father.

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You father so many people that cross your paths in life,

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and I get the awesome blessing of witnessing it

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and partnering in it with you every day.

00:33:07

I know you're going to be revealing

00:33:09

some very heartbreaking parts of your life

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during this video shoot.

00:33:12

You've had to endure more emotional pain

00:33:15

than any decent man should ever have to in a life.

00:33:20

God wants to use your difficult past

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to becoming your powerful testimony.

00:33:26

Your words could possibly inspire others

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to reconsider forthcoming bad decisions in their lives.

00:33:32

Your story might open his or her heart

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to the God that loves them with relentless pursuit.

00:33:39

And his relentless pursuit of you

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gives them a hope and a promise.

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I love you, and I'm so incredibly proud

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to be your wife and partner in life.

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David is so blessed to have you as his daddy.

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Let it rip all for the glory of

00:33:53

the one who created you to be the best daddy ever.

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Love you forever, Amanda.

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So tomorrow is her birthday and I think

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she and I might talk about this tomorrow night.

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- So the letter we got was the way it is

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when the Romans got a letter from the Apostle Paul

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and the way we are when we read something

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in the Scriptures, God's trying to tell us something.

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And I believe God's trying to tell you

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that He loves you, cares for you,

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and has grace for you

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no matter what you've done in the past.

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This is actually an instruction of His.

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The Bible has instructions,

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also known as commands in them.

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And there's also instructions about

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how to understand and lean to the beauty of grace.

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You know, when we don't have instructions

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it gets really frustrating, life does.

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Could you imagine putting together

00:34:52

an Ikea piece of furniture without instructions?

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In fact, I'll just say right now,

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if there is such a place as hell,

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which there is, it probably looks like Ikea.

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I mean, Dante talked about different levels of hell.

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No, it's wandering around in Ikea with

00:35:08

a bunch of particle board, that's what it is.

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And when you go and get those things, right,

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have you ever tried to put together.

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It's so frustrating.

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If you don't have the right tools that they supply,

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which are not very helpful, you just feel so frustrated.

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And some of us feel so frustrated with God

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because we don't have the tools to understand the grace of God.

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It's like I saw somebody recently,

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they took their Ikea furniture

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and just spelled out a word and said,

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"This is what I need. Help."

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I'm trying to help you.

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If you've ever been frustrated or distracted

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or don't understand a God,

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you might be missing the grit aspect,

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or most likely you're missing the grace aspect

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that He's patient with you.

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He has more time for you.

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He has more resources for you.

00:35:56

He is rich in them.

00:36:00

Grace is also known as favor, unmerited favor.

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There's all these volumes of books that help

00:36:09

you understand different New Testament words.

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One of them is Grace, which is Charis.

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The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

00:36:18

multi-volume work, a tome, if you will, pun intended,

00:36:22

of all these different words and the meaning of them,

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the background of them.

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It's the definitive work in Greek words.

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This Greek word Charis is seen as unmerited favor.

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Here's here's a little quote that they quote

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a guy by the name of Cremer, they say this:

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Favor, benevolence, kindness.

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This is everybody.

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Everybody, including you if you've been

00:37:00

around the grace of God for decades.

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The grace of God is not for people

00:37:04

who just come to know God for the first time.

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It's for all of us all the time.

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Let's go to Romans and take a look at our main passage today.

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Chapter 12, verse 3. Here's what it says:

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For by the grace given to me.

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Again, it's given, grace is given,

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not by the grace earned, not by the grace that I have

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that I am entitled to, no.

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Three big ideas for us today.

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One is this: humility attracts favor.

00:37:47

If you want more favor from God,

00:37:49

more kindness from God, more resources from God,

00:37:52

more forgiveness from God, more opportunities from God,

00:37:55

more slack from God, this tells us

00:37:58

don't think more highly of yourself than you should.

00:38:02

Humble. When God sees humble people, he says,

00:38:04

"Hmm, I want to give more of my resources right there."

00:38:07

The Bible says that God brings down the prideful

00:38:12

and He exalts the humble.

00:38:13

How does he lift up the humble?

00:38:15

By giving more grace. Grace upon grace.

00:38:21

Now, humility doesn't mean you can't have any self-confidence.

00:38:24

That's not what humility means.

00:38:27

Someone has said before that

00:38:28

humility isn't thinking less of yourself,

00:38:32

humility is thinking of yourself less.

00:38:36

I'm thinking of other people.

00:38:37

I'm thinking of God.

00:38:39

I'm not thinking about myself.

00:38:40

When I'm thinking about myself, God goes,

00:38:42

"Oh, you're about yourself. I guess you don't need Me

00:38:44

because you're all about yourself."

00:38:45

When I think about other people, when I think about God,

00:38:48

I encourage God to give me grace.

00:38:50

It's not a right. It's not a do this and you get that.

00:38:53

Grace, you never know how God is going to give it,

00:38:55

how He's going to give it.

00:38:56

It actually says according to the measure.

00:38:59

There's different amounts of grace that comes to us

00:39:01

and different ways that grace to us.

00:39:05

But all of us can have that favor, all of us.

00:39:09

I was thinking this last week,

00:39:11

I was journaling in our Crossroads app.

00:39:13

You can always go there and and maybe increase

00:39:16

that you might get a hit of grace.

00:39:18

When I go to our app and I look at

00:39:19

a chapter of the Bible and about three times a week,

00:39:22

maybe, I'll journal something for

00:39:24

a couple paragraphs and put it out.

00:39:26

I don't go to the app or I don't have

00:39:28

my time with God in the morning because it's my time to,

00:39:31

by grit, be spiritual and read my Bible and pray.

00:39:35

Sometimes I feel that way, but when I'm on my game,

00:39:38

I do those things because I'm saying

00:39:40

maybe God will notice here's a humble person here

00:39:43

that just wants a little more grace.

00:39:45

I want to put myself in a place

00:39:47

where I can get more grace.

00:39:49

And I was reflecting on a passage in Romans

00:39:52

about how sad it is that when I talk to

00:39:56

somebody who isn't a Christian

00:39:58

who I play basketball with

00:39:59

or ride a motorcycle with or whatever,

00:40:01

I'm wooing them and talking to them about the grace of God.

00:40:04

I'm not talking about

00:40:06

the obligations that God has for them.

00:40:07

There are obligations, but it's the grace that's appropriate.

00:40:10

When I give a standard gospel presentation,

00:40:14

when I talk about the forgiveness of Jesus

00:40:16

and His grace He gave to us by going on a Cross

00:40:20

and giving us His life in exchange for our life

00:40:23

so I can be forever with God.

00:40:26

That's Grace, right?

00:40:27

I don't lead with, "What you need to do

00:40:29

is come to know Christ because then

00:40:30

you're going to get a whole new set of rules.

00:40:32

You can have whole expectations. He's all of a sudden--"

00:40:35

You don't lead with that. You lead with grace.

00:40:37

Now, the problem is, when many of us come to faith,

00:40:40

we think that grace is for others, we forget it's for us.

00:40:44

And we come to churches and we just get

00:40:46

rules all the time, obligations all the time.

00:40:49

And by the way, there are rules and obligations.

00:40:51

We'll give those kind of sermons.

00:40:52

But you've got to hear me say really, really clearly,

00:40:55

grace is not a thing once you come to know Christ.

00:40:58

Grace is a thing for all seasons when you're with Christ,

00:41:02

all, you never stop needing the grace of God.

00:41:04

And He never stops giving the grace of God.

00:41:07

Grace is for you and the problems you did today.

00:41:11

Grace is for you and the things you did yesterday.

00:41:13

And Grace is coming to you

00:41:14

and the things you haven't even worked for

00:41:16

that are going to be blessings maybe tomorrow.

00:41:18

You haven't earned it, but it's coming. It's unmerited.

00:41:22

Can anybody give me an amen in the house?

00:41:24

Because that's good news. Seriously.

00:41:27

God doesn't just give paychecks. He gives grace.

00:41:32

He doesn't just give you what you've earned.

00:41:34

That would be by grit.

00:41:36

He gives you things you haven't even thought of,

00:41:38

which is grace. It's beautiful.

00:41:41

And this favor is not only encouraged when we're humble,

00:41:47

this favor is encouraged and known when it's varied.

00:41:52

Favor is varied.

00:41:54

It comes to different people

00:41:56

at different times in different ways.

00:41:59

Let's go back to Romans, verse four:

00:42:16

The image of body, right.

00:42:18

This finger here has a different function than this one.

00:42:22

You know, it's a different one.

00:42:24

Thumb, has different. I'm never going.

00:42:26

What am I doing here?

00:42:27

I want to grasp and do a pull up.

00:42:28

I want to maybe put you under my thumb.

00:42:31

My knee, my knee is something different.

00:42:33

Everything in the body has

00:42:35

something different that it does, right?

00:42:36

It's all to go different way.

00:42:42

Well, its the same way inside whenever

00:42:45

there's a group of people who follow Christ,

00:42:47

we all have different functions.

00:42:49

We all have different varied forms of grace

00:42:54

that enable us to all do some things

00:42:58

that somebody else can't do

00:43:00

and enables them to do something that we can't do.

00:43:04

It's all because of the grace.

00:43:07

1 Peter 4:10 says this:

00:43:17

Why does He bless us?

00:43:19

He blesses us because He loves us.

00:43:21

That's just in His nature.

00:43:22

And He blesses us and gives us grace

00:43:26

hoping that we're going to deploy it

00:43:29

to serve somebody else.

00:43:30

Now, this is going to sound really bad.

00:43:32

It's going to be really bad.

00:43:34

It's going to be a trigger word. Okay?

00:43:36

I don't want to use this word.

00:43:38

I've tried, I've prayed through.

00:43:40

Let's get synonymous words.

00:43:41

I don't think it fits,

00:43:42

so when I get this trigger word

00:43:44

I know it's going to sound very offensive.

00:43:46

I understand. Just let me define it. Okay?

00:43:48

Okay. Here we go.

00:43:49

When it comes to grace, God discriminates.

00:43:55

What do I mean by that?

00:43:57

It means He gives things to different people

00:44:01

with no desire for consistency

00:44:03

and there's things that you're going to get

00:44:05

that I have no shot of ever getting.

00:44:07

I'm discriminated against.

00:44:08

Not according to race.

00:44:10

Not according to financial abilities.

00:44:13

Not according to looks.

00:44:14

But there's just things that you get

00:44:17

that I'm not going to get

00:44:18

and there's things that I get

00:44:20

that you're not going to get.

00:44:22

There's things that I do that you can't do

00:44:24

and there's things that you do that I can't do,

00:44:26

and the person next to you.

00:44:27

And this is the message of this passage in Romans.

00:44:31

There's varied grace.

00:44:32

And we all have different things and there's

00:44:35

all things that many of us are not going to get.

00:44:37

I get asked pretty frequently,

00:44:39

"Do you ever get nervous when you get up there,

00:44:40

when you speak, do you get nervous?"

00:44:42

And the answer is always the same,

00:44:43

"No, never been nervous a day in my life

00:44:45

whenever I spoke. Never, ever."

00:44:46

Now, if you ask me on Tuesday, yes.

00:44:49

Because on Tuesday I'm working out my content

00:44:51

and I'm thinking, "Oh man, I don't know if

00:44:52

I'm going to get this, I don't know

00:44:54

if this is going to be any good."

00:44:55

So Tuesday, Wednesday, but when it comes

00:44:57

before me to get on stage, whether, wherever it is,

00:44:59

any number of people, no, never, ever nervous, never happen.

00:45:03

That's not because I'm really smart and self-confident.

00:45:06

It's because there's a grace that's on me doing this thing.

00:45:11

When I was in sixth grade,

00:45:13

I had Mr. Utterback was my teacher.

00:45:16

And he did this thing, he'd do it every month or so.

00:45:20

Every other month he would pull out everything in his desk,

00:45:25

pull open all the drawers and pull out staplers

00:45:27

and pens and and he'd spread it out over the desk.

00:45:30

And I remember going, "What is he doing?"

00:45:32

The first time he did it, he went, "Okay,

00:45:34

now everybody, I'm going to call on

00:45:36

you have to come up here and pick up this object

00:45:39

and talk about it for two minutes."

00:45:41

And you could see kids in the class go...

00:45:44

They just like, Oh, no.

00:45:46

They're like making sure he wouldn't see them.

00:45:49

Me, I heard this and went, "Oh, that sounds fun."

00:45:52

I'm sitting there, I'm like...

00:45:55

I'm like, this could be fun.

00:45:56

He called on me and come up and gave me a stapler.

00:45:58

Stapler? This is a metal device

00:46:01

that actually shoots metal into paper.

00:46:03

It comes into the paper and curls around to hold it.

00:46:06

Otherwise, I'm not going to make it two minutes,

00:46:08

so I better start making stuff up.

00:46:09

And some people use it as a gun.

00:46:11

They open it all the way up and they start pulling it.

00:46:13

And I'm just going, it was a great time.

00:46:15

It was wonderful.

00:46:16

Before I received Jesus, before I had the Holy Spirit,

00:46:20

there was a grace on me as it relates to public speaking.

00:46:24

A varied grace. Now, let me go a little further.

00:46:27

I've gotten your emails.

00:46:29

I know, I know. I know. You told me. You told me.

00:46:32

That is why I had my friend come preach

00:46:34

a couple months ago, Matt Chandler.

00:46:37

He was better than me. [laughter]

00:46:39

Yes, you told me. I know. I know.

00:46:42

Because you know why?

00:46:44

Matt has more grace as a preacher than I do.

00:46:48

He just does.

00:46:50

I want to improve. I've been improving.

00:46:53

I understand I'm half decent, but hear me,

00:46:56

I listen to Matt as I hear Matt, I listen.

00:46:58

I'm going, "I am such a loser. I can't."

00:47:01

The guy doesn't stumble on a single word.

00:47:04

He just, like, commands everything.

00:47:06

He always has the right word at the right time.

00:47:08

He probably spent ten minutes in preparation.

00:47:10

It was just smooth, like, smooth move Ex-lax,

00:47:13

is what I told him. It's amazing.

00:47:14

It's just like the whole thing.

00:47:16

And I honestly, I just, like, I wasn't bitter.

00:47:19

I was like, "Wow, that's amazing."

00:47:21

The grace of God has come to him

00:47:23

for him to do what he does.

00:47:25

And there's -- I'm just talking about

00:47:26

some of the flashy gifts right now.

00:47:28

But I'll tell you what, there's varied grace

00:47:30

that will come to you as well.

00:47:31

It comes to you that may not be on a stage

00:47:34

or may not be as flashy.

00:47:35

But I'll tell you what, it's significant.

00:47:37

It's important.

00:47:41

I'll talk about those in just a little bit.

00:47:43

But all of us have things that God's blessed us with

00:47:46

that other someone hasn't and it doesn't make sense.

00:47:49

My parents are in town this weekend.

00:47:51

It's great to have them around

00:47:52

and I'm just reminded of ways that I've gotten grace from God

00:47:55

as a result of them being my parents.

00:47:56

I was adopted at birth and came into their family.

00:47:59

And by nature, I am not a student by nature.

00:48:05

I am not one who understands numbers, not by nature.

00:48:08

Right?

00:48:11

And they by nature are. and they with their values,

00:48:14

were let's save, let's save,

00:48:16

let's save save for kids education."

00:48:18

So here comes me not valuing education at all

00:48:22

and them paying for all of my education,

00:48:24

including classes I dropped and I had to redo.

00:48:27

And I come out of college. I'm glad they did.

00:48:30

I'm glad I have it now, college and seminary.

00:48:32

I actually got my act together in seminary a bit.

00:48:34

But I came out of college, no debt.

00:48:36

I have no educational debt.

00:48:37

And you know what? That's not fair.

00:48:40

Because some of you value education

00:48:41

and have a mind for education more than I do.

00:48:45

And you didn't have somebody to pay your way

00:48:48

or you didn't even have the grades

00:48:50

to get a scholarship or whatever it was.

00:48:52

I can't explain it.

00:48:54

I got put in this family

00:48:55

and I didn't do anything to earn it.

00:48:56

And there's things as well

00:48:58

that you haven't done anything to earn,

00:49:00

you just have it.

00:49:02

Another one of mine is I just have a crazy immune system.

00:49:06

It's -- when I get sick, which is, like, never,

00:49:09

people work with me get really freaked out

00:49:11

that Jesus is returning because they're like,

00:49:13

"This is just--"

00:49:16

COVID, I never got anything on COVID.

00:49:19

I'm a asymmetric, asymmetrical,

00:49:23

asymptomatic, whatever it is.

00:49:26

Matt Chandler would have known the right word immediately.

00:49:33

If I had COVID, I'm a -- What's it again? Asymptomatic.

00:49:38

I'm asymptomatic.

00:49:39

I went to, this is going to really bother some of you.

00:49:42

So relax. Give grace.

00:49:47

Last week I got vaccinated.

00:49:50

Oh, my gosh. Woo! I know.

00:49:53

I got the shingles vaccination.

00:49:55

And sure enough, the next day, I'm like,

00:49:58

"What is what is going on?"

00:50:00

And I said to my wife said, "What is it?"

00:50:01

She said, "That's what it feels like to be sick.

00:50:04

You just never are." Oh, okay. Okay. I got it.

00:50:08

It doesn't mean I'm not going to get sick.

00:50:10

It doesn't mean I'm not going to come down

00:50:12

with something really awful next week.

00:50:13

I'm just saying, generally, there's a grace

00:50:15

that I've had in that area that you may not have had,

00:50:18

and there's grace that you have that I don't have.

00:50:20

This last week I went to our our CFO at Crossroads,

00:50:25

Season Huff, and I had some personal financial stuff

00:50:27

I was trying to wrestle through.

00:50:29

And I just was having a hard time

00:50:30

understanding the percentages and the allocations

00:50:32

and I just -- she knows how much I make anyway,

00:50:35

so like, "Hey, let's would you do this math for me?

00:50:37

Double check me?" Now, yes, I can do math.

00:50:40

Yes, I can, but not as easily as Season.

00:50:44

And joyfully. I'm like, I got to go down there.

00:50:47

She's got a grace.

00:50:48

She always has a grace on her for numbers.

00:50:50

It's wonderful. I wish I did.

00:50:52

I just don't. I got to be just barely passable.

00:50:56

But she has this, and you probably do too,

00:50:59

ways that you're just amazing.

00:51:01

Maybe the gift of grace and mercy,

00:51:03

people are sick and they want to be around you.

00:51:05

It's great because you have this grace that pervades people.

00:51:10

When people are sick, they don't want me around them.

00:51:15

Like, especially if you're in the hospital.

00:51:17

I'm like the angel of death.

00:51:18

You don't want to see me walking into your bedroom,

00:51:20

it means you're going to die in probably a month

00:51:22

or something like that.

00:51:23

It's bad news because I just don't have

00:51:25

that grace of natural empathizing.

00:51:27

And I'll talk about this a moment,

00:51:28

I'm growing in that and I need to grow in that.

00:51:30

But all I'm saying, this whole --

00:51:31

hold that point for a moment, all I'm saying is this,

00:51:34

you just have to recognize there's things

00:51:35

that God has blessed you with, it's His grace.

00:51:38

You haven't worked for it. It's His favor.

00:51:42

And what's great being part of a church

00:51:44

or part of a community is you get to see

00:51:46

His favor in so many people in different ways.

00:51:50

Tina McKinley, who's up in Mason,

00:51:52

has this amazing -- talk about empathy,

00:51:54

amazing grace of empathy to connect with people.

00:51:58

And she leads people through baptisms

00:52:00

and she does pre-baptism meetings.

00:52:02

She actually likes pre-baptism meetings

00:52:05

and has brought people to Christ in pre-baptism meetings.

00:52:07

She has this unbelievable grace of empathy and connection.

00:52:12

Ian Benson who's up in our Dayton campus,

00:52:15

has actually been other Crossroads campus

00:52:16

based on where he's lived.

00:52:18

He's in Dayton right now.

00:52:19

He, even though he's a software designer,

00:52:21

he has this grace of working with kids.

00:52:25

He goes to summer school, or excuse me,

00:52:28

middle school and high school camp every year

00:52:31

because he likes to and doesn't get paid.

00:52:35

And our student ministry in Dayton,

00:52:37

as is other places, are just really taken off.

00:52:39

It's because of grace that's on people like him.

00:52:43

When I am at Man Camp, I like to post up,

00:52:46

or Couples Camp, I post up at this corner.

00:52:47

At Couples Camp, if you've ever been there,

00:52:49

you know, as you come in, it's called Kissing Corner.

00:52:51

You have to kiss your spouse before you keep going.

00:52:53

At Man Camp, the same place I call Heckler's Corner.

00:52:57

I just help guys coming in and then verbally abusing you.

00:53:00

It's wonderful. It's one of my --

00:53:01

It's one of my love languages, so I'll just --

00:53:05

It's all, one time a guy's coming in

00:53:07

and I see Otis and God prompts me says,

00:53:11

"Tell Otis he's speaking this weekend."

00:53:14

I went, "Otis, at some point this weekend

00:53:17

I'm going to call you up to speak and just say something."

00:53:21

He goes, okay, and keeps going.

00:53:24

In a session, the middle session,

00:53:25

I thought, "Now's the time."

00:53:27

"Otis, are you here? I want you.

00:53:28

I know you were supposed to speak. This is your time."

00:53:30

Comes up, Otis has like seven minutes,

00:53:32

crushes it, utterly crushes it.

00:53:35

He actually is a motivational speaker,

00:53:36

it's kind of what he does. He's amazing.

00:53:39

Otis has a grace on him on that that's stunning.

00:53:42

And he volunteers every Vet Camp,

00:53:45

every Vet Camp, every Man Camp.

00:53:47

And his grace pervades people.

00:53:50

And out of humility, he doesn't get a fee,

00:53:53

like none of us do at camps because he's volunteering.

00:53:55

Wendy Abernathy Perkins up in Columbus.

00:53:58

Wendy has a crazy, crazy ability

00:54:02

to empathize with people who aren't like her.

00:54:05

She gets people in groups because people,

00:54:08

no matter what gender you are or whatever,

00:54:11

you just -- she has this way to just make you feel

00:54:14

like you're a part of things.

00:54:17

Spooky from what I understand. Spooky.

00:54:21

And it's what Grace is.

00:54:23

See, Grace is varied.

00:54:24

It comes in all different ways, shapes and forms.

00:54:26

And it's always hoping that we serve one another.

00:54:31

Let's keep going. Verse six, verse six.

00:54:33

Having gifts that differ

00:54:35

according to the grace given to us.

00:54:36

See that? They differ according to what?

00:54:39

According to the grace, because grace is varied.

00:54:50

Spiritually encouraging people,

00:54:52

that's the New Testament version of prophecy.

00:55:12

Some of us who have the grace for mercy, we're cheerful.

00:55:16

Like, someone is hurting, we're like,

00:55:18

"Oh, good, I get to be deployed."

00:55:20

We're not good that they're hurting, but it's like,

00:55:22

"Whew, it's great. I know I can bless this person."

00:55:24

Those of us who don't have the grace of mercy,

00:55:27

we still have to offer mercy, but we get nervous about it.

00:55:30

Like, "Oh no, I hope I say the right thing. I hope."

00:55:34

All these things are listed

00:55:36

are all things all of us need to do.

00:55:38

You may not have the spiritual gift that comes

00:55:42

from the grace or the favor of teaching,

00:55:44

but if you're a parent, you're going to teach.

00:55:47

If you're in a group, you're going to say

00:55:49

something that's going to help somebody else.

00:55:51

You may not all have -- we may not have

00:55:53

the grace of generosity as it talks about here.

00:55:56

But we all need to be generous.

00:55:58

We all need to get to a tithe at least.

00:56:00

But those of us who have the gift,

00:56:02

the gift of generosity,

00:56:04

when they see what God's giving them,

00:56:05

they're like, "Tithe, smithe,"

00:56:07

they're giving 15, 20, 30, 40, 50% of their income.

00:56:11

And God has blessed them to do that.

00:56:12

And they do that and they love it.

00:56:14

In fact, when you have the grace of giving,

00:56:16

you look at someone like me that isn't at 50%

00:56:19

and you're like, "You're a loser, what is your problem?"

00:56:22

Because grace goes, "How do people not get this?"

00:56:26

Leading, when you lead it's the grace of God's given you.

00:56:29

It's a thing of zeal.

00:56:30

You have to do it zealously, excitedly, like,

00:56:35

"Hold on, God's blessed me with this.

00:56:37

I need to deploy it and go, go, go, go, go."

00:56:42

See, when we see grace as this thing

00:56:45

that God has blessed me with

00:56:47

and I'm about others and God,

00:56:51

I will put that into practice.

00:56:53

But if I'm about myself, because I'm prideful,

00:56:56

when God blesses me with something, gives me favor,

00:56:59

I just keep it here.

00:57:01

When God gives you favor, you naturally say,

00:57:04

"I need somebody else to have this.

00:57:06

I need to bless somebody else."

00:57:09

Grace caused us to have different gifts

00:57:12

and grace, when we deploy our gifts appropriately,

00:57:16

we get more grace.

00:57:18

At least that's what 2 Corinthians 9 indicates,

00:57:20

says this:

00:57:25

I love that. Abound.

00:57:26

Not like just enough grace to save you, no, abound.

00:57:40

I love this, riches, abounding, immeasurable.

00:57:45

These are all descriptors of what God has with grace.

00:57:50

It's not, like, just enough grace to get you to heaven.

00:57:53

It's grace upon grace upon grace.

00:57:56

And it says here that when we abound in good works,

00:58:01

when we put His favor into play,

00:58:04

we're taking a spot of humility.

00:58:07

And God is saying, "I need to give more grace there.

00:58:12

More favor needs to be going your way."

00:58:15

A mark of having favor, last point is this.

00:58:17

The mark of having favor is giving favor.

00:58:22

Whenever I meet somebody who won't cut somebody's slack,

00:58:25

won't give somebody a second chance,

00:58:27

won't be generous to somebody,

00:58:29

I know I'm meeting somebody who doesn't understand grace.

00:58:32

Because when you understand that God's been generous to you,

00:58:35

when you understand that God's given you slack,

00:58:37

when you understand God's giving you a second chance,

00:58:40

you're good to give to somebody else.

00:58:42

Now, here's something that's going to really bother you.

00:58:45

I'll say it anyway. I teach things that aren't true.

00:58:53

I don't know what they are, but I know I'm not inerrant.

00:58:58

I know as much as I prepare, I know there's things

00:59:01

that I say that aren't true.

00:59:03

Why do I know that?

00:59:04

Because I'm human, number one.

00:59:06

And number two, 15 years ago,

00:59:08

I believed something about something else

00:59:10

and I changed my mind and now I believe this.

00:59:12

So either then or now I'm wrong.

00:59:14

And guess what?

00:59:16

God can handle me and give me grace when I'm wrong.

00:59:22

God is okay when I'm thinking the wrong,

00:59:26

it doesn't affect our relationship. He still loves me.

00:59:28

Let me ask you this:

00:59:29

Are you okay when somebody else is wrong,

00:59:32

or you just always upset and angry

00:59:34

because someone doesn't think like you?

00:59:36

See God is okay when I'm not thinking like Him.

00:59:38

He wants to bring me to another place.

00:59:39

And I'm not saying there's no such thing as truth.

00:59:41

There is. There's a standard in truth,

00:59:43

and God is the standard.

00:59:44

What I'm saying is God gives me grace when I'm off.

00:59:48

Are we giving people grace when they're off?

00:59:51

And not only that, maybe they're not off.

01:00:03

And when you're in love with God,

01:00:04

when you're in love with the grace of God,

01:00:07

you appreciate His grace,

01:00:08

you don't appreciate being right.

01:00:10

That's not the point. It's being close to God.

01:00:14

It's having His grace.

01:00:17

Jesus says, "To whom much is given, much is required."

01:00:22

And when I used to hear that verse before,

01:00:24

I used to feel like guilt and obligation.

01:00:26

"Oh, okay. I have nice things.

01:00:29

I need to do more for people.

01:00:30

Oh, much required.

01:00:31

So God's going to grade me on a higher level."

01:00:33

I don't think that's what He's talking about here.

01:00:35

If we think about that as favor,

01:00:39

to whom God has given much favor.

01:00:42

Which we have favor living in the United States

01:00:44

versus Russia, for instance.

01:00:47

God bless Russia or God likes Russia.

01:00:48

God loves people in Russia.

01:00:50

But gosh, I'm not trying to just get political.

01:00:52

I'm just saying -- I'm just --I'm just trying --

01:00:54

I'm just trying to say I think we all agree

01:00:56

there's some countries we would rather not live in.

01:00:58

I won't call them out by name anymore. Right?

01:01:01

So if I believe it's an act of God's favor

01:01:05

for me to have or be the place I am,

01:01:08

maybe that propels me to give that favor

01:01:11

to somebody else, to bless somebody else.

01:01:17

You might ask, why are you always talking about Camps?

01:01:19

Why are you to Camps? Why, why?

01:01:20

Why is Crossroads spend a lot of money on getting property?

01:01:24

And we got all kinds of Camps.

01:01:25

I got like Man Camp, Woman Camp, Couples Camp,

01:01:28

Father Son Camp, Mother Daughter Camp,

01:01:32

Vet Camp, Dyslexic Chihuahua Camp.

01:01:35

I mean, we got - -We got, like, all of them, right?

01:01:39

Speaking of that, speaking of dyslexics.

01:01:45

A dyslexic, hear the one about the --

01:01:48

a dyslexic walks into a bra.

01:01:51

Wait a minute. Bar, sorry, bar.

01:01:55

That's the end of the joke. That's the end of the joke.

01:01:57

Now, here's the great thing about that,

01:02:00

people I've talked to who are dyslexic,

01:02:02

they think that's amazing.

01:02:03

Those of you who aren't dyslexic,

01:02:04

you're hating on me big right now.

01:02:07

Let's just relax. Anyway, back to Camps.

01:02:10

That's what got me on this whole thing anyway.

01:02:12

What got me on this whole thing was this:

01:02:14

God met me and I felt a grace of God

01:02:17

when I was camping with friends.

01:02:18

I felt a level of spiritual nourishment,

01:02:21

of vulnerability, of opening up my life.

01:02:23

And God prompted me and others who I was with

01:02:27

at a specific campsite saying,

01:02:29

how can we give this to other people?

01:02:31

And that is how Camps was born.

01:02:34

And I don't need it for my personal time.

01:02:36

I don't make any money off of camps.

01:02:38

It's like I don't get a speaking fee.

01:02:40

It's more responsibility for this and that.

01:02:42

But it's a grace that I've experienced

01:02:45

in seeing literal healings happen on our land.

01:02:48

Physical healings, literal physical healings,

01:02:51

spiritual healings, reunifications in marriages,

01:02:55

and hundreds and, gosh, thousands probably by now,

01:02:58

baptisms in a skanky pond.

01:03:01

And it's all because grace was given to people.

01:03:04

We said, "We need to make this available

01:03:06

to other people and to whom much is given, much is required."

01:03:10

And so in my leadership, it tells me

01:03:12

if I have a gift of leadership, I need to do it zealously.

01:03:15

I need to go, I need to push because that's

01:03:17

where the favor of God would have me go.

01:03:19

And I would say the same thing to you.

01:03:21

What is the favor God has given you?

01:03:23

Thank Him for it, wrap your arms around it,

01:03:26

be overjoyed for it, enjoy it.

01:03:29

And how can you deploy it?

01:03:32

How can you happily and faithfully and gracefully

01:03:37

put that into play in the lives of others?

01:03:39

And when you do that, you will be a humble servant.

01:03:43

And a humble servant is the one who God looks at

01:03:46

and says, "Hmm, hmm, that's where I'm giving grace."

01:03:49

Philippians 2 says this, had the same mind in you

01:03:53

that was also in Christ, that though He existed

01:03:55

in the form of God, did not consider equality with God

01:03:58

something to be grasped, but emptied Himself,

01:04:02

Jesus emptied Himself and gave up His life to death,

01:04:05

even death on a cross.

01:04:08

Therefore, therefore, at the name of Jesus,

01:04:11

every tongue, knee shall bow, by every tongue confess

01:04:13

that Jesus is Lord, because God has hyper exalted His name.

01:04:17

That's about the humility of Jesus

01:04:19

and His action to give grace and lay His life down

01:04:23

has then cause God to say, "Hey,

01:04:25

we're going to make you, elevate your name,"

01:04:27

because He is the best known name in all of the world.

01:04:30

There's not even a close second.

01:04:31

Not even a close second.

01:04:33

He's the most well known name,

01:04:35

the most respected name in entire human history.

01:04:39

It's because of the favor of God that He's modeling for us.

01:04:43

Elevate your game by enjoying the favor of God

01:04:46

and blessing others with it.

01:04:48

God, I'm thankful for our time, and I'm thankful for Your grace.

01:04:51

I can't describe it enough. I can't.

01:04:53

I feel frustrated.

01:04:54

It's like it's so deep and so great,

01:04:56

I just can't get it right.

01:04:57

I'm getting closer, but it's like trying to

01:05:00

describe splitting an atom. I just can't do it.

01:05:02

But I know the closer we get to it,

01:05:06

whatever rudimentary understanding we're coming to

01:05:09

is the closer we're getting to love

01:05:11

and forgiveness and joy and happiness and peace.

01:05:14

Thank You for being so patient and so kind.

01:05:17

You are so good and so grateful.

01:05:20

I pray these things according to the name of Jesus. Amen.

01:05:27

- Thanks for watching.

01:05:28

Since you stuck around, I want to give you

01:05:29

a next step and a challenge to not let

01:05:32

this be your only time you spend with God this week.

01:05:35

Download the Crossroads app for iPhone or Android

01:05:38

and spend time with God daily in the app.

01:05:40

It will give you prompts to follow, Scripture to read.

01:05:43

You can ask for prayer and pray for others

01:05:45

and connect with other people.

01:05:46

It's probably one of the only apps on your phone

01:05:49

that is going to have a positive impact on your life.

01:05:52

So download the app today at crossroads.net/app.

01:05:56

And we'll see you next week when Andy Reider

01:05:57

talks about how we all experience grace

01:06:00

in different ways.

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