We Are All Managers | Taking Control Week 1

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A life with God doesn't have to be boring.

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You were made for adventure.

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It can be a heart pounding life of purpose.

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Join us every weekend for 30 minutes of challenge, hope,

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and encouragement to guide you on your spiritual adventure.

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- Does this feel like your life right now?

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You can't control everything,

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but you can control more than you think.

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Taking control: a new Crossroads weekly streaming series.

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Learn how to take control of what God gave you.

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Get started at Crossroads.net.

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- Hey, I'm Chuck, thanks for joining us today.

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We're starting a new series called Taking Control,

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hopefully more than I took control of that remote control car.

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But you know, it's easy to feel like things are out of control,

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especially in this year, 2020, it's been crazy, right?

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But what we're going to learn in this series

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is that God has given us more control than we think.

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We're going to kick off today with Brian

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talking about the job that God has given all of us to do.

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- Hi, my name is Brian Tome, Senior Pastor at Crossroads Church.

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And no, I'm not performing a wedding today.

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No, I didn't just come from a funeral

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and I don't have a job interview either.

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I am appropriately dressed for the occasion.

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I am in business attire.

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We're going to talk about a spiritual principle

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that is a key principle for everybody

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who goes to a new place spiritually.

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It is one of the things that separates the spiritual greats

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from the spiritual wah-wahs.

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It's the concept of managing.

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It's the concept that everything that I can see,

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that I can receive, that I can do is actually God's.

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It's not mine.

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I am here to be a manager, a manager.

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Now, Jesus would talk about this multiple times

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and He gives a classic story, He gives two versions of it.

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We're going to look at it today.

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It's known as the parable of the talents.

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And there's another one called the parable of the minas.

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And I'm going to reference mostly the parable of the minas today.

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It comes the Book of Luke 19:12-13.

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Here's how it starts, Jesus says that:

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Or engage in business until I come.

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Jesus is pro-business and He actually uses business language

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and business metaphors to help us understand who God is,

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to help us understand eternity.

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Big idea that we've got to get down first is

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you and I are managers; we're not owners.

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You and I are managers, not owners.

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We don't own anything.

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We didn't create our skin.

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We didn't create our brain.

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We didn't create our life.

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And therefore, we don't own it.

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It's not proprietary to us.

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The very first chapter in the Bible, it nails us

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on not understanding our role in the cosmos.

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God creates the the heavens and the earth

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and He puts men and women, Adam and Eve,

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in the garden to take care of it.

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You know, I just get so weary of like,

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all the dinosaur questions, like were Adam and Eve riding dinosaurs?

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No, they weren't riding dinosaurs.

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And no, I don't believe that Triceratops was in the garden.

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I don't. I don't believe that at all.

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It's important to understand and figure out

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what you believe about dinosaurs

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and how the world was created

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and how long ago it came up into being

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and those seven little 24 hour days.

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Fine. We can have those discussions some other time.

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But that's not the point. It's not the point of Genesis 1.

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Genesis 1 is not written to be our science text.

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Genesis 1 is written for spiritual truth, and that is

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that you and I are placed in the garden to manage it.

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This world is not ours. We didn't create it.

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We're here to manage it.

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The most ardent and healthy environmentalists

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should be people who follow Jesus,

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should be people who believe in God,

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who recognize that this earth is an amazing blessing.

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As I go out west and I overland,

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spewing my carbon emissions all over, God bless America.

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I also want to pick up my trash because I recognize

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that it's a blessing, the Earth is, I need to take care of it.

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Your job, it's not your job.

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You didn't create your job.

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You didn't invent your job.

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Your family, it's not your family.

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We say my family because that shows

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that I've got a hyper, hyper responsibility here.

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But you didn't create the semen that created your kids.

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If you're married, you didn't do anything

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to cause his or her heart and liver to be there.

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Somebody else created that.

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Your gifts, your talents,

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do you really think they came from you?

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If you're a great salesman, do you really think

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your winning personality was developed by you?

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Do you really think if you have a way with numbers

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that your way with numbers maybe is influenced

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by how God put together your brain

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and not just what your chosen major was in college?

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The money you have, have you done anything to ever

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make a golden nugget that will be mined from a mountain?

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Have you done anything that would earn you the right

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to be born in America in a capitalistic place

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where you can actually earn income?

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You didn't choose any of that stuff

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and therefore we don't own any of those things.

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God has blessed us.

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Our education, our education, that's another.

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I can go on and on and on and on

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about things that you and I have, we're blessed with,

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that we're there to manage and take care of.

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When I borrow people stuff and I've messed it up,

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it's really -- it really is troublesome.

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I mean, I had borrowed somebody's boat

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and engine went out on me.

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That that was a hyper, hyper bummer.

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I've driven a friend's car, Kathy was her name,

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in snow and I went off the road and hit a guardrail.

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That bummed me out.

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Why? Because those things aren't mine.

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I feel horrible about it,

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utterly horrible because they're not mine.

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That's how we should feel about everything God's given us.

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We should be thankful for it and we should have

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a sense of sobriety that I've got to take care of this.

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Hey, welcome to Middle Management. Welcome. Welcome.

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Where there's God up here and there's all the things

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and all the accolades and all the accomplishment

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and wedged right in the middle is you and I as middle managers.

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Book of Psalms 24:1 says: The Earth is the Lord's

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and the fullness thereof,

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the world and all those who dwell within.

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So what's God's?

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Well, the earth, that's God's.

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The Earth is the Lord's.

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And also, make sure we get this right, and the world His.

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And of course, all those who dwell within it.

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Who's the those? That's the you and I.

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If you're a follower of Jesus, it is vital you understand

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you're a manager of God's assets.

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This helps alleviate stress

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and this gives purpose to our lives

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and it puts us in our proper spiritual place.

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We don't own anything.

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God owns it all and He's given you and I a job to take care of it.

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We're going to be the best middle managers we possibly can.

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I'm actually here just getting a new profile picture

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for my LinkedIn account.

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Yeah, you know, any of us who have ever had a paycheck

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have been managed.

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When you get a paycheck, somebody signs that paycheck,

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somebody you're reporting to

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and and we've all had good managers and bad managers.

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I've had good managers and bad managers.

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I actually had a really great manager who who oversaw me

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on my first job flipping hamburgers at Hardee's.

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I had a really good manager,

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the first guy who taught me construction work.

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I worked for Scott Federoff, really, really great.

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I've had some good managers. I've had some bad managers.

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What's really crazy is the number of people

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who are in church work and don't have good managers.

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Like in church work or in work where we're saying that

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we're about God stuff, we're saying that He owns all things,

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you would think that we'd have a better reputation

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for managing the people around us

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because they're actually God's children.

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They're God's people and you want to elevate them

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and have them do more than we've ever done.

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In the NFL, no secret, NFL coaches are not great managers.

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They're there to put wins on the board

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for the owner of that team.

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They're not there to develop their staff,

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so their staff can go on and win things.

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That's why it normally doesn't happen,

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but what it does is a pretty powerful thing.

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I don't know if someone is developing you.

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I'm just trying to develop you right now.

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This is actually a sense of management I have.

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If you're with me right now,

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I feel responsibility before God to develop you,

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to help you understand things in the spiritual realm

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that you've got to understand

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if you're going to get to the next place.

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Every good manager recognizes that they don't own anything.

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And this takes a good degree of stress off.

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It means I can say to you what I know that God wants you to hear,

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and if you don't like it, well, that's between you and Him.

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It's not between to me and you.

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It means that when something goes wrong in my life,

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well, it's God's life. It's not my life. I don't own it.

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It means when my resources go down in my retirement account,

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I may not like it. I may need to shift some things around,

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but they're God's resources, not mine.

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And when my kids have a problem,

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I know I've got to step in and I've got to deal with it.

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Maybe it's a bad medical diagnosis, something like that.

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I can roll that stress right off my back

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because they're not my kid, they're actually God's kids.

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It means when someone asks to borrow something of mine,

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I'm more likely to say yes because, why?

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It's not mine, it's God's.

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This is an incredibly light and free way to live,

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instead of this American thing where I own everything,

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I have to consume everything, and everything is mine.

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The best managers understand it's not their stuff,

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it's God stuff and I'm not going to get attached to it.

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I'm going to develop it. I'm going to take care of it.

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I may need to let it go at various points, but when you do this,

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this has massive implications for your life,

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massive implications for your spiritual life.

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There are great middle managers

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and that's what I want you to be.

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And there's not so great middle managers.

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The great middle managers have untold rewards

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that are coming their way.

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Not so great middle managers, well, not so at all.

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We'll talk about that next.

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- I think we all have areas of our life that we just let go,

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so I hope that you're feeling the challenge

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that I'm feeling to maybe get more control

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in a specific area of your life.

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One of the things I never want to let go of

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is my gratitude for God, for His generosity, the way He provides.

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And it's one of the reasons that I give.

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If you want to give and be a part

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of what God's doing at Crossroads go to Crossroads.net/give

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or text the word Crossroads to 313131.

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Now, if you're in the regular habit

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of giving 10% of your income to the church,

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then you're part of something already called the Blue Team.

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Those are the folks who have committed to say,

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"Hey, we want to invest in what God's doing around here."

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You can find out more at Crossroads.net/blueteam.

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But know this, your giving is fueling life change in our church.

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One of the ways that happens every year is through the Journey.

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It's coming up in just a couple of weeks.

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It's a six week focus where we look at something,

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wrestle with a question.

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This year we're wrestling with the question: is God good?

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I can tell you over the life of being around Crossroads,

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the Journey changes lives.

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Let's take a look at a video of some lives

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that have been impacted by previous Journeys.

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- The Journey Home caused me to realize

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that God wanted a relationship with me

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and there were things that were getting in the way,

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and my job at that point in time was one of them.

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So the Journey Home actually caused me to quit my job and

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actually helped me lean into the community that was around me.

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- The Purpose & Play Journey helped my husband and I

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realize that we are a team

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and God has different purposes for us through our life.

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And it taught me that right now my purpose is to be a good mom and a good wife.

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- I didn't necessarily know what I was doing

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coming alongside the Brave Journey.

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I knew I had friends there

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and I knew I was going to be meeting new people.

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And ultimately those people were able to be the voice of God

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that allowed me to start my new business.

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- The next Crossroads Journey starts October 3rd.

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Five weeks that could change your life.

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- Do the Journey.

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- Really do the Journey.

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- Seriously do the Journey.

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- You will be rewarded and judged for how well you manage.

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Now, outside of the right context

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for that saying I just said, it could really be unhealthy.

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Let me say it again, you'll be rewarded and judged

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by how well you manage.

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Now, we're not talking here about in the grand scheme of things

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who goes to heaven and who doesn't.

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We go to heaven based on one thing:

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whether or not we receive Jesus.

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whether or not He is our forgiveness.

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whether or not our unrighteousness is transferred to His back

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and His righteousness is transferred to our back.

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That's the great exchange.

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That's the greatest wire transfer that's ever happened in business.

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My stuff on Him and His stuff on me.

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And when God looks at somebody who's received Christ,

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who's received his Holy Spirit,

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He sees pureness, He sees holiness.

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God causes all things to work together for good

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for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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The Bible says that Jesus became sin,

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the one who knew no sin, for us who had sin.

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So we're talking about here in management this is about how well this life works for you.

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This is about rewards that may come to you in this life,

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unique to this life

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or rewards that may come to you when you're in heaven

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because there are different rewards in heaven.

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And actually, not to go hyper deep on you,

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but there's actually different punishments in hell.

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I'm throwing a lot of deep stuff at you.

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I don't have time to give you all these verses here today.

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I'm just making sure you understand

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you're not going to manage your way to heaven,

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you're not going to earn your way to heaven.

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Jesus get you to heaven.

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But, for those of us who have relationship with Him,

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we recognize that we are His, He owns us,

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and everything in my life is owned by God.

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I now have to manage what He's given me.

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He is my boss and He wants to know

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whether or not I'm taking care of His stuff.

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He's my boss and He wants to know whether or not I'm on His agenda.

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He's my boss who gets to define what I do with my life

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and what I have with my life.

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In fact understand that my life isn't mine

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and nothing in my life is mine.

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Jesus tried to spell this out in this parable.

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Let's keep reading it in Luke 19:14 and following,

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this noble person who gives wealth to people to manage.

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And it says:

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Now, let's stop right there and talk about what's going on here.

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When Jesus tells a parable, He has people or objects

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that represent eternal things, eternal truths.

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The noblemen, the owner is God, it's Him who goes away,

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meaning He's not distant from us.

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He's just not as visibly obvious in our day to day lives.

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As a result of Him not being as obvious in our day to day lives,

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it makes room for all kinds of doubters,

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all kinds of cynics, all kinds of scoffers.

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In fact, it goes from that to actually them hating him.

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This is actually very much what we have

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in many corners of our culture today.

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People are cynical towards God, scoffing towards God,

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actually hate Him in His absence.

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We're not sure exactly why this is, it just is.

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It's been the way it's been for 2000 years.

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People being doubters and cynical and skeptical is --

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that's an old, old, old, old thing.

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Maybe part of it is the bitterness and frustrations

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that we have that no matter how much we try

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we just can't be God.

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We just can't attain to His level.

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We just can't accomplish all the things we want to accomplish.

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We just can't keep our lives together

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the way we want to keep it together.

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That's how we know we're not God.

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Life isn't going the way we all wanted it.

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If we were God, life would be going perfectly; wouldn't it?

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So what happens with many of us is

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we just get more angry, more cynical, more doubtful.

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And yet, God gives things to people and gives minas,

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or a mina.

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Mina, mena, whatever you want to call it.

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This is a sum that's roughly worth about four months of wages.

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So these people get four months of wages

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to figure out what they're going to actually do with it.

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First one comes says, "Man, I took those minas, I got 10.

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I doubled them. I doubled it, totally."

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He's like, "Wow, way to go. Phenomenal, phenomenal."

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Second person comes, says, "I took these ones

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and I got you that and more.

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I took five and I got five more on top of that."

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He said, "Wow. That's amazing. Amazing."

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In both situations what the master says,

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who represents God, what he says is,

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"I'm going to put you over 10 cities."

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"I'm going to put you over five cities."

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What's He saying here?

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He's saying that the responsibilities that He gives him

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is commensurate to how well he's managed what he had.

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I'm in this corporate corner office in a high rise now.

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I don't know anything about the person whose office this is.

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There's a kind person who is allowing us to be in his office.

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I don't think about him except for this.

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Whatever skills and abilities he had

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when he was in the mailroom, he used them and deployed them

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to get to a place where he could have a corner office.

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Whatever skills and whatever he had when he was in a cubicle,

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he worked at really, really hard

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to be able to get to a office like this.

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There are things that God wants to give you

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and there's things that God wants to steward you with,

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give you to steward, that's the old time Church-y word,

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that He will not do until He knows that

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you're going to manage His stuff really, really well.

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Remember that old movie with, oh, what's his name?

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Will, Will, Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

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Why can't I remember? Will Smith.

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It was The Art of Happiness or something like that,

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or pursuit -- Pursuit of Happiness, that was it.

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The Pursuit of Happiness. Really, really interesting movie.

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This guy works his way up from poverty

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and he tries to land this money manager,

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his personal retirement accounts, he wants to manage his accounts.

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And the guy looks at him and says, "You can't.

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You can't, you can't measure my --

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You can't take my money, you're just -- you're new at this.

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I'm not going to give you my portfolio."

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And Will Smith's character then goes and he starts working

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with people who are entry level workers

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and he starts working his way up.

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That's basically what this guy is saying,

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no one who has millions and millions and millions

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of dollars is going to just drop it on somebody who has no history.

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And yet we expect God, who has gazillions and gazillions

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and gazillions of resources,

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who owns the cattle on a thousand hills,

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we expect Him to just drop something in my lap

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and allow me to do whatever I want with it.

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And why aren't you blessing me and giving me more

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and giving me more?

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We're missing the point.

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It's not about you and I having more.

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It's not about you and I having the life we want.

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It's about you and I being managers of God stuff.

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Every dollar you have, it's not yours, it's God's.

00:22:04

Every house you have, if you have multiple houses,

00:22:06

they're God's.

00:22:09

Every car you own, every skill you have,

00:22:12

all the hand eye coordination you have,

00:22:14

your sense of humor, the country you live in,

00:22:19

the children you have, the insights you have,

00:22:22

the wisdom, it's all God's.

00:22:24

And so you get to decide whether or not

00:22:27

you're going to put it into play.

00:22:28

And if you put that into play,

00:22:30

that takes root and it grows.

00:22:33

Guess what He does? He gives you more.

00:22:36

He gives you more and He gives you more.

00:22:38

In our culture, we just get so cynical of people

00:22:40

who are doing well.

00:22:43

I think we get cynical of some people who walk closely with God

00:22:47

and are doing really, really well.

00:22:48

Have you ever considered that there's a lot of people

00:22:50

walk close with God who are doing really, really well

00:22:52

because God is rewarding them?

00:22:55

Have you are considered they're really a good manager

00:22:57

and God considers them worthy of more influence,

00:23:02

worthy of more resources?

00:23:06

Have we ever considered that the reason why

00:23:07

some of us perpetually struggle is that God is not willing

00:23:11

to give us anything else because we squander and don't use

00:23:14

and don't put into play everything He already has given to us?

00:23:18

Friends, this is a massive, massive principal.

00:23:24

Story continues, it says:

00:24:23

Whew!

00:24:27

Could I remind us that this is Jesus telling this story?

00:24:31

Can I remind us that this is the one who's supposed to be

00:24:35

perfect, lovey dovey, and never says anything that bothers us?

00:24:38

Yeah, that's Jesus telling us this story.

00:24:42

He says, "Man, it is not good when God comes around

00:24:47

and He sees somebody who has not grown what He's given them.

00:24:51

It is not good when God comes around

00:24:54

and He sees someone gone all conservative

00:24:56

and just trying to save something and tuck it away.

00:24:59

Guy's like, "Look, I buried it. I put it in my handkerchief.

00:25:01

Here it is."

00:25:02

Every time He tells that story,

00:25:03

a similar one is parable of the talents.

00:25:06

In that one the guy buries it in the ground.

00:25:08

So Jesus is very anti anybody burying anything in the ground.

00:25:12

He's very anti wrapping it up in a handkerchief.

00:25:16

You know, it's like the thing we all know,

00:25:19

how do you make a handkerchief dance?

00:25:21

You put a little boogie in it.

00:25:25

That's a classic, that's a classic dad joke, it really is.

00:25:28

Speaking of dad, I'm 54 years old right now.

00:25:32

And, you know, you accumulate some wisdom over the years,

00:25:36

things that you've learned over the years.

00:25:39

And I have a responsibility, opportunity,

00:25:43

and I might even say burden

00:25:45

to help as many people as possible with that.

00:25:46

In between these takes I'm doing right here,

00:25:49

I've been looking at my Instagram questions.

00:25:51

Every other Wednesday people ask a bunch of questions.

00:25:54

And I mean, I'm talking hundreds come in,

00:25:56

some really, really deep ones,

00:25:58

some really just stupid, whimsical ones.

00:26:00

I kind of do some whimsical answers.

00:26:02

I do some deep answers too.

00:26:04

And I'm doing that because of this principle,

00:26:07

because God has any wisdom I have, and I'm not perfect.

00:26:10

I don't have all wisdom. I make mistakes.

00:26:12

I believe the wrong things.

00:26:13

I don't know what I believe the wrong things about,

00:26:14

but I know I have the wrong attitudes

00:26:15

and I know I'm not perfect.

00:26:17

I don't have the perfect ideas of everything.

00:26:19

But I know this: whatever God has given me,

00:26:23

if I don't grow that,

00:26:25

if I don't get that into other people's lives,

00:26:27

if I don't help them, God is not going to be happy.

00:26:31

I will have wasted my life if I just stop

00:26:34

and I just protect where I am right now

00:26:36

and I just make sure I don't make any mistakes

00:26:38

with my life right now and keep everything safe.

00:26:39

No, I'm constantly looking for

00:26:41

how can I how can I grow that influence?

00:26:44

How can I replicate that wisdom?

00:26:45

How can I help other people?

00:26:48

What is it that God has blessed you with

00:26:51

and are you sticking it in your pocket

00:26:54

or are you putting it to work?

00:26:58

I'm telling you, if you're putting it to work,

00:26:59

get ready for more opportunities are coming your way.

00:27:04

Get ready for more things that are going to come down the pike.

00:27:07

Get ready.

00:27:09

Get ready for God to do something different in your life.

00:27:11

Get ready for new things that are going to be good things.

00:27:15

I'm not promising you health and wealth, friends, I'm not.

00:27:17

We've tried to apologize away

00:27:20

the awful health and wealth prosperity gospel.

00:27:22

It's all awful. It is, it is.

00:27:24

But we also need to understand these teachings of Jesus,

00:27:27

they're here in black and white and says very, very clearly,

00:27:30

if you want to rule over cities.

00:27:31

You want five cities, you want ten cities?

00:27:33

How much responsibility do you want?

00:27:36

It all comes down to how well you manage your life

00:27:41

and you embrace being a manager of things and not an owner.

00:27:47

I'm going to pray for you right now.

00:27:48

God, I thank You that You are a God who is patient

00:27:54

and You're a God who has incredible generosity with us.

00:27:59

And that You actually include us in Your work, You entrust us.

00:28:03

It's crazy that You entrust to me

00:28:06

the things You've entrusted to me.

00:28:08

God, I pray this time we've had together

00:28:11

it would lead to huge spiritual growth

00:28:14

and a huge future that is better tomorrow

00:28:18

than our past was yesterday.

00:28:22

God, just bolt to our mind right now,

00:28:24

pop rivet it to our mind right now,

00:28:26

what is the thing that we need to unbury and put into play?

00:28:30

I pray these things according to the character

00:28:32

and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:28:37

- What a powerful message of hope in a time when it's easy to be hopeless.

00:28:41

I'm so thankful for that.

00:28:43

And the reason we can have hope is because God is faithful.

00:28:46

So right now, we're going to have a chance to say that to Him,

00:28:49

to be thankful for a God who is always faithful.

00:37:58

- I hope you inspired to take control

00:38:00

of what God has given you to manage.

00:38:02

I know we're talking through screens

00:38:04

and we're not in our buildings, but we are one chat away.

00:38:07

If you want to talk with someone about what's going on

00:38:08

in your life, chat with us at Crossroads.net.

00:38:11

We talked about the Good God Journey. It's coming up.

00:38:13

And for the Journey to be powerful, you've got to get in a group.

00:38:16

If you want to find out groups that are meeting

00:38:18

in your area or online, go to Crossroads.net/journey.

00:38:22

I'll see you next week.

00:38:30

- Thanks for watching.

00:38:31

and I want to help you go on your spiritual adventure.

00:38:35

We have a community of people that gathers online

00:38:37

to go on an adventure together

00:38:39

through processing the weekend message

00:38:41

and applying it week in and week out.

00:38:44

We call these Weekend Follow-up Groups

00:38:46

and you could join one today from anywhere you are

00:38:48

by heading to Crossroads.net/onlinecommunity.

00:38:51

It might just be the thing that takes you

00:38:53

to the next place on your adventure with God.

00:38:56

We'll see you next week.

	Brian Tome: The Job God Gives Us	1:08
	Brian Tome: The Responsibility Of Mangers	13:41
	Worship: We Praise You	28:54
	Worship: Faithful	33:10

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